# starch

> English word · Noun · IPA /stɑɹt͡ʃ/ · frequency rank #19,706

## Definitions
1. A widely diffused vegetable substance, found in seeds, bulbs and tubers, as extracted (e.g. from potatoes, corn, rice, etc.) in the form of a white, glistening, granular or powdery substance, without taste or smell, and giving a very peculiar creaking sound when rubbed between the fingers. It is used as a food, in the production of commercial grape sugar, for stiffening linen in laundries, in making paste, etc.
2. Carbohydrates, as with grain and potato based foods.
3. A stiff, formal manner; formality.
4. Fortitude.
5. Any of various starch-like substances used as a laundry stiffener.

## Etymology
From Middle English starche, sterche, from Old English *stierċe (“stiffness, rigidity, strength”), from Proto-West Germanic *starkī (“stiffness, rigidity, fortitude, strength”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sterg- (“stiff, rigid”).
Cognate with dialectal Dutch sterk (“strong”), Middle Low German sterke (“strength”), German Stärke (“strength", also "starch”), Swedish stärkelse (“starch”), Icelandic sterkja (“starch”). Related to English stark (“stiff, strong, vigorous, powerful”).

## Easily confused with
- **start** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-start)
- **stars** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-stars)
- **stark** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-stark)
- **stare** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-stare)
- **stash** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-stash)
- **starr** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-starr)
- **stitch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-stitch)
- **stared** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-stared)
- **starve** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-starve)
- **stares** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-stares)
- **starry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-starry)
- **stench** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-stench)
- **swatch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-swatch)
- **staunch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-staunch)
- **starchy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/starch-vs-starchy)
- **star** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/star-vs-starch)
- **Sarah** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sarah-vs-starch)
- **stack** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stack-vs-starch)
- **Stacy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stacy-vs-starch)
- **staph** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/staph-vs-starch)

## Common misspellings (10)
`satrch`, `sstarch`, `stacrh`, `starcch`, `starchh`, `starhc`, `starrch`, `strach`, `sttarch`, `tsarch`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/starch