SatánvsstayWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Satán is a name, stay is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Satán” is a name and “stay” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,615
“Satán” frequency rank
#27,786
“stay” frequency rank
54401
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Satán stay
Definition Término con que las religiones abrahámicas designan a una entidad suprasensible que representa la encarnación suprema del mal, personificada en el ángel caído que desobedeció y se rebeló contra los mandatos de Dios. Parada.

Where the eye mixes Satán and stay

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Satán
4 ch
stay

Visual trap between Satán and stay

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Satán is [saˈt̪ãn] while stay is /steɪ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54401, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Satán is recorded at frequency rank #26,615, classified as aname, pronounced [saˈt̪ãn]. stay is at rank #27,786, tagged as anoun, pronounced /steɪ/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 54401, this pair ranks #83,487 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Satán vs stay

Shared letters: ast. Private to "Satán": . Private to "stay": y.

"Satán" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "stay" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • staysaty · sstay · stayy · sttay · stya · tsay

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Satán" and "stay" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Satán" is a name and "stay" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "Satán" or "stay" show up more?
"Satán" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,615 in our Spanish list, against #27,786 for "stay". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Satán" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stay" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #83,487 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Satán" and "stay" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stay vs stem". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #83,487 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list