statsvsstaveTell them apart

Which to use

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

#4,124
“stats” frequency rank
#27,656
“stave” frequency rank
31780
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stats stave
Definition Clipping of statistics (the subject). One of a number of narrow strips of wood, or narrow iron plates, placed edge to edge to form the sides, covering, or lining of a vessel or structure; especially, one of the strips which form the sides of a cask, barrel, pail, etc.

Where the eye mixes stats and stave

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
stats
5 ch
stave

Visual trap between stats and stave

A purely visual mix-up. stats (/stæts/) and stave (/steɪv/) 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 31780, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stats is recorded at frequency rank #4,124, classified as anoun, pronounced /stæts/. stave is at rank #27,656, tagged as anoun, pronounced /steɪv/.

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 31780, this pair ranks #343,268 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stats vs stave

Shared letters: ast. Private to "stats": -. Private to "stave": ev.

"stats" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "stave" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • statssatts · sstats · stast · statss · statts · sttas · sttats · tsats
  • stavesatve · sstave · staev · stavve · sttave · stvae · tsave

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "stats" and "stave" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/stæts/ versus /steɪv/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "stats" or "stave"?
"stats" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,124 in our English list, against #27,656 for "stave". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "stats" and "stave" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stats" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stave" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #343,268 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stats" and "stave" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stave vs stover". 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 #343,268 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