Which to use
“stay” is a verb and “story” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #473
- “stay” frequency rank
- #341
- “story” frequency rank
- 814
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stay | story |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To remain in a particular place, especially for a definite or short period of time; sojourn; abide. | An account of real or fictional events. |
Where the eye mixes stay and story
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: stay is /steɪ/ while story is /ˈstɔː.ɹi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 814, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stay is recorded at frequency rank #473, classified as averb, pronounced /steɪ/. story is at rank #341, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈstɔː.ɹi/.
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 814, this pair ranks #528,735 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of stay vs story
Shared letters: sty. Private to "stay": a. Private to "story": or.
"stay" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "story" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV