stare
/stɛɚ/verb, noun
stare is spelled S-T-A-R-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 8.1 times per million words in written English, the 8,146th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “stair vs stare” about 170 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, stare means “To look fixedly (at something)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in stare?
| Letters | 5: S-T-A-R-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 8.1 times per million words; the 8,146th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is stare?
Stare appears 8.1 times per million words in written English, the 8,146th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce stare?
- US /stɛɚ/
- UK /stɛə/
- British /stɛː/
Stare has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-stair.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-stare.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with stare
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: stair (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with stare?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as stare from its last stressed vowel (/ɛəɹ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: rates, tears, taser, aster, sater, teras, setar.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of stare
- stares present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- staring participle, present
- stared participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does stare mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To look fixedly (at something).
She found him staring with raised eyebrows at her.
- 2
To influence in some way by looking fixedly.
to stare a timid person into submission
- 3
To be very conspicuous on account of size, prominence, colour, or brilliancy.
staring windows or colours
- 4
obsoleteTo stand out; to project; to bristle.
noun
- 1
A persistent gaze.
the stares of astonished passers-by
- 2
archaicA starling.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Stare in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to look fixedly:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | fixer, mirer |
| German | starren, anstarren, beschnarchen |
| Portuguese | fitar, encarar, olhar fixamente |
| Spanish | mirar fijamente, quedarse mirando, vichar, bichar, velar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does stare come from?
From Middle English staren, from Old English starian (“to stare”), from Proto-West Germanic *starēn, from Proto-Germanic *starjaną, *starāną (“to be fixed, be rigid”), from Proto-Indo-European *ster-.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).