storevsstroveWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: store is a noun, strove is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“store” is a noun and “strove” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,030
“store” frequency rank
#43,398
“strove” frequency rank
44428
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature store strove
Definition A place where items may be accumulated or routinely kept. simple past of strive

Where the eye mixes store and strove

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
store
6 ch
strove

Visual trap between store and strove

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: store is /stɔː/ while strove is /ˈstɹɔʊv/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44428, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

store is recorded at frequency rank #1,030, classified as anoun, pronounced /stɔː/. strove is at rank #43,398, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈstɹɔʊv/.

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 44428, this pair ranks #230,664 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of store vs strove

Shared letters: eorst. Private to "store": -. Private to "strove": v.

"store" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "strove" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • storesotre · sstore · stoer · storre · stroe · sttore · tsore
  • strovesrtove · sstrove · storve · stroev · strovve · strrove · strvoe · sttrove

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "store" and "strove" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "store" is a noun and "strove" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "store" or "strove" show up more?
"store" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,030 in our English list, against #43,398 for "strove". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "store" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "strove" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #230,664 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "store" and "strove" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stover vs strove". 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 #230,664 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