stage
/steɪd͡ʒ/
"stage" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“stage” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #837 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #837
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A phase.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | stage |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /steɪd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #837 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “stage” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for stage is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /steɪd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #837 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 17 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for stage, with forms such as "satge", "sstage", and "staeg". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "stay", "star", "stan", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English stage, from Old French estage (“dwelling, residence; position, situation, condition”), from Old French ester (“to be standing, be located”). Cognate with Old English stæþþan (“to make staid, stay”), Old Norse steðja (“to place, provide, … The correct English form is stage, spelled S-T-A-G-E.
Definition
- 1A phase.
- 2One of the portions of a device (such as a rocket or thermonuclear weapon) which are used or activated in a particular order, one after another.
- 3A platform; a surface, generally elevated, upon which show performances or other public events are given.
- 4A floor or storey of a house.
- 5A floor elevated for the convenience of mechanical work, etc.; scaffolding; staging.
- 6A platform, often floating, serving as a kind of wharf.
- 7A stagecoach, an enclosed horsedrawn carriage used to carry passengers; the service that such coaches provide; a company that operates such service.
- 8A place of rest on a regularly travelled road; a station, way station; a place appointed for a relay of horses.
- 9A degree of advancement in a journey; one of several portions into which a road or course is marked off; the distance between two places of rest on a road.
- 10The number of an electronic circuit’s block, such as a filter, an amplifier, etc.
- 11The place on a microscope where the slide is located for viewing.
- 12A level; one of the areas making up the game.
- 13A place where anything is publicly exhibited, or a remarkable affair occurs; the scene.
- 14The succession of rock strata laid down in a single age on the geologic time scale.
- 15An internship.
- 16The notional space within which stereo sounds are positioned, determining where they will appear to come from when played back.
- 17The profession of an actor.
Etymology
From Middle English stage, from Old French estage (“dwelling, residence; position, situation, condition”), from Old French ester (“to be standing, be located”). Cognate with Old English stæþþan (“to make staid, stay”), Old Norse steðja (“to place, provide, confirm, allow”), Old English stede (“state, status, standing, place, station, site”). More at stead. Doublet of étage.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: satge,sstage,staeg,stagge,stgae,sttage,tsage
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of stage - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “stage”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-A-G-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /steɪd͡ʒ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “stay” - see the side-by-side comparison. stage vs stay
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.