statusvsstatutesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,439
“status” frequency rank
#15,067
“statutes” frequency rank
16506
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature status statutes
Definition A person’s condition, position or standing relative to that of others. plural of statute

Where the eye mixes status and statutes

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

6 ch
status
8 ch
statutes

Why the eye confuses status with statutes

A purely visual mix-up. status (/ˈsteɪ.təs/) and statutes (/ˈstæt͡ʃuts/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16506, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

status is recorded at frequency rank #1,439, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsteɪ.təs/. statutes is at rank #15,067, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈstæt͡ʃuts/.

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 16506, this pair ranks #457,326 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of status vs statutes

Shared letters: astu. Private to "status": -. Private to "statutes": e.

"status" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "statutes" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • statussattus · sstatus · statsu · stattus · statuss · stauts · sttatus · sttaus
  • statutessattutes · sstatutes · stattutes · statuets · statutess · statutse · statuttes · stauttes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "status" for "statutes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsteɪ.təs/ versus /ˈstæt͡ʃuts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "status" or "statutes"?
"status" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,439 in our English list, against #15,067 for "statutes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "status" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "statutes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #457,326 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "status" and "statutes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "status vs staves". 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 #457,326 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