stonevsstoopWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,676
“stone” frequency rank
#24,326
“stoop” frequency rank
26002
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stone stoop
Definition A hard earthen substance that can form rocks; especially, such substance when regarded as a building material. A stooping, bent position of the body.

Where the eye mixes stone and stoop

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

5 ch
stone
5 ch
stoop

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. stone (/stəʊ̯n/) and stoop (/stuːp/) 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 26002, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stone is recorded at frequency rank #1,676, classified as anoun, pronounced /stəʊ̯n/. stoop is at rank #24,326, tagged as anoun, pronounced /stuːp/.

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 26002, this pair ranks #389,973 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of stone vs stoop

Shared letters: ost. Private to "stone": en. Private to "stoop": p.

"stone" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "stoop" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stonesotne · sstone · stnoe · stoen · stonne · sttone · tsone
  • stoopsotop · sstoop · stoopp · stopo · sttoop · tsoop

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "stone" and "stoop" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/stəʊ̯n/ versus /stuːp/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "stone" or "stoop"?
"stone" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,676 in our English list, against #24,326 for "stoop". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "stone" and "stoop". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stone" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stoop" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #389,973 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stone" and "stoop" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stoop vs stooped". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list