stasisvsstatusWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“stasis” and “status” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#29,480
“stasis” frequency rank
#1,439
“status” frequency rank
30919
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stasis status
Definition A slackening or arrest of the blood current, due not to a lessening of the heart’s beat, but to some abnormal resistance of the capillary walls. A person’s condition, position or standing relative to that of others.

Where the eye mixes stasis and status

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. stasis and status follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
stasis
6 ch
status

Look-alike desk: stasis vs status

A purely visual mix-up. stasis (/ˈsteɪsɪs/) and status (/ˈsteɪ.təs/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30919, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stasis is recorded at frequency rank #29,480, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsteɪsɪs/. status is at rank #1,439, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsteɪ.təs/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 30919, this pair ranks #350,499 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stasis vs status

Shared letters: ast. Private to "stasis": i. Private to "status": u.

"stasis" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "status" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stasis ← satsis · sstasis · staiss · stasiss · stassi · stassis · stsais · sttasis
  • status ← sattus · sstatus · statsu · stattus · statuss · stauts · sttatus · sttaus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "stasis" for "status" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsteɪsɪs/ versus /ˈsteɪ.təs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "stasis" or "status"?
"status" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,439 in our English list, against #29,480 for "stasis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stasis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "status" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #350,499 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stasis" and "status" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "staid vs stasis". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #350,499 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list