staturevsstatuteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,138
“stature” frequency rank
#9,257
“statute” frequency rank
25395
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stature statute
Definition A person or animal's natural height when standing upright. A written law or ordinance passed by a legislative body.

Where the eye mixes stature and statute

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
stature
7 ch
statute

Visual trap between stature and statute

A purely visual mix-up. stature (/ˈstæt͡ʃ.ə/) and statute (/ˈstatjuːt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - r in “stature” becomes t in “statute”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25395, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stature is recorded at frequency rank #16,138, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈstæt͡ʃ.ə/. statute is at rank #9,257, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈstatjuːt/.

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 25395, this pair ranks #394,586 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stature vs statute

Shared letters: aestu. Private to "stature": r. Private to "statute": -.

"stature" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "statute" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • staturesatture · sstature · statrue · statture · statuer · staturre · stautre · sttature
  • statutesattute · sstatute · stattute · statuet · statutte · stautte · sttatute · sttaute

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "stature" for "statute" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈstæt͡ʃ.ə/ versus /ˈstatjuːt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "stature" or "statute"?
"statute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,257 in our English list, against #16,138 for "stature". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "stature" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "statute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #394,586 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stature" and "statute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "statuary vs stature". 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 #394,586 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