stale
/steɪl/
"stale" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“stale” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #16,589. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #16,589
- frequency rank, English
- 6,566
- “S” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Clear, free of dregs and lees; old and strong.
Corpus desk
Index EN-stale · stale · English
stale · rank #16,589 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #16,589
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,566
- PHOTO-FINISH soaking
Nearest frequency peer: soaking (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “stale”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- sire
sire
83,415 corpus weight
- slated
slated
83,414 corpus weight
- soaking
soaking
83,413 corpus weight
- stale
stale
83,412 corpus weight
- stereotype
stereotype
83,411 corpus weight
- sterile
sterile
83,410 corpus weight
What this shows “stale” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | stale |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /steɪl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #16,589 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “stale”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around stale (IPA /steɪl/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #16,589 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Wiktionary lists 10 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for stale, with forms such as "satle", "sstale", and "stalle". 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 stale, from Old French estal (“fixed position, place”), but probably originally from Proto-Germanic *stāną (“to stand”): compare West Flemish stel in the same sense for ‘beer’ and ‘urine’. The correct English form is stale, spelled S-T-A-L-E.
Definition
- 1Clear, free of dregs and lees; old and strong.
- 2No longer fresh, in reference to food, urine, straw, wounds, etc.
- 3No longer fresh, new, or interesting, in reference to ideas and immaterial things; clichéd, hackneyed, dated.
- 4No longer nubile or suitable for marriage, in reference to people; past one's prime.
- 5Not new or recent; having been in place or in effect for some time.
- 6Fallow, in reference to land.
- 7Unreasonably long in coming, in reference to claims and actions.
- 8Worn out, particularly due to age or over-exertion, in reference to athletes and animals in competition.
- 9Out of date, unpaid for an unreasonable amount of time, particularly in reference to checks.
- 10Of data: out of date; not synchronized with the newest copy.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how stale appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The stronger Beere is divided into two parts (viz.) mild and stale; the first may ease a man of a drought, but the later is like water cast into a Smiths forge, and breeds more heartburning, and as rust eates into Iron, so overstale Beere gnawes auletholes in the entrales, or else my skill failes, and what I have written of it is to be held as a jest.
Particular care must be taken that the stale beer in which the isinglass is dissolved be perfectly clear and stale.
Etymology
From Middle English stale, from Old French estal (“fixed position, place”), but probably originally from Proto-Germanic *stāną (“to stand”): compare West Flemish stel in the same sense for ‘beer’ and ‘urine’.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- satle
- sstale
- stalle
- stlae
- sttale
- tsale
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of stale - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "stale", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).