upstage
/ʌpˈsteɪd͡ʒ/
"upstage" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“upstage” is uncommon English (frequency #63,341 among 1,433 “U” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,341
- frequency rank, English
- 1,433
- “U” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The part of a stage that is farthest from the audience or camera.
Corpus desk
Index EN-upstage · upstage · English
upstage · rank #63,341 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #63,341
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,433
- PHOTO-FINISH unperturbed
Nearest frequency peer: unperturbed (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “upstage”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- uncontrover…
uncontroversial
36,666 corpus weight
- uncritically
uncritically
36,665 corpus weight
- undervalue
undervalue
36,663 corpus weight
- unforeseeab…
unforeseeable
36,662 corpus weight
- unperturbed
unperturbed
36,661 corpus weight
- upstage
upstage
36,660 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “upstage” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | upstage |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ʌpˈsteɪd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #63,341 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “upstage” in English
Rare enough to double-check
upstage is uncommon English at frequency #63,341 among 1,433 “U” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ʌpˈsteɪd͡ʒ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The part of a stage that is farthest from the audience or camera.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for upstage in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From up- + stage. The figurative uses “haughty” and “to draw attention away” derive from actors moving to a higher and thus more visible position on a sloped stage. The correct English form is upstage, spelled U-P-S-T-A-G-E.
Definition
- 1The part of a stage that is farthest from the audience or camera.
Etymology
From up- + stage. The figurative uses “haughty” and “to draw attention away” derive from actors moving to a higher and thus more visible position on a sloped stage.
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
How do you spell "upstage"?
What does "upstage" mean?
How do you pronounce "upstage"?
What is the origin of the word "upstage"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "upstage", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).