staple
/ˈsteɪ.pəl/
"staple" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“staple” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,611 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #11,611
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A town containing merchants who have exclusive right, under royal authority, to purchase or produce certain goods for export; also, the body of such merchants seen as a group.
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 | staple |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈsteɪ.pəl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #11,611 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “staple” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for staple is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsteɪ.pəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,611 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for staple, with forms such as "satple", "sstaple", and "stalpe". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "state", "style", "stole", 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 staple, from Anglo-Norman estaple, Old French estaple (“market, (trading) post”), from Late Latin stapula, from Frankish *stapul, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *stapulaz (“post”), from Proto-Indo-European *stebʰ- (“post, stem”). Compare… The correct English form is staple, spelled S-T-A-P-L-E.
Definition
- 1A town containing merchants who have exclusive right, under royal authority, to purchase or produce certain goods for export; also, the body of such merchants seen as a group.
- 2Place of supply; source.
- 3The principal commodity produced in a town or region.
- 4A basic or essential supply.
- 5A recurring topic, character, or item.
- 6Short fiber, as of cotton, sheep’s wool, or the like, which can be spun into yarn or thread.
- 7Unmanufactured material; raw material.
- 8a type of two-pronged fastener, usually metal, used for joining, gathering, or binding materials together.
Etymology
From Middle English staple, from Anglo-Norman estaple, Old French estaple (“market, (trading) post”), from Late Latin stapula, from Frankish *stapul, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *stapulaz (“post”), from Proto-Indo-European *stebʰ- (“post, stem”). Compare staff. Doublet of étape and etymology 2.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: satple,sstaple,stalpe,stapel,staplle,stapple,stpale,sttaple,tsaple
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of staple - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “staple”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-A-P-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsteɪ.pəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “state” - see the side-by-side comparison. staple vs state
- 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.