Which to use
“stole” is a verb and “story” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,087
- “stole” frequency rank
- #341
- “story” frequency rank
- 5428
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stole | story |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past of steal | An account of real or fictional events. |
Where the eye mixes stole and story
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. stole and story follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: stole vs story
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: stole is /stəʊl/ while story is /ˈstɔː.ɹi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5428, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stole is recorded at frequency rank #5,087, classified as averb, pronounced /stəʊl/. 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 5428, this pair ranks #515,361 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of stole vs story
Shared letters: ost. Private to "stole": el. Private to "story": ry.
"stole" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "story" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "stole" and "story" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "stole" or "story" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "stole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "story" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #515,361 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stole" and "story" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stole 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 #515,361 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.