spy vs sta, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“spy” is a noun and “sta” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,092
“spy” frequency rank: #14,015
“sta” frequency rank: 62107
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	spy	sta
Definition	Espía.	Forma del femenino de sto: «esta».

Where the eye mixes spy and sta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

spy

3 ch

sta

Visual trap between spy and sta

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: spy is /spaɪ/ while sta is /ˈsta/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62107, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spy is recorded at frequency rank #48,092, classified as anoun, pronounced /spaɪ/. sta is at rank #14,015, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsta/.

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 62107, this pair ranks #53,123 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of spy vs sta

Shared letters: s. Private to "spy": py. Private to "sta": at.

"spy" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "sta" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "spy" and "sta" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "spy" is a noun and "sta" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "spy" or "sta"?

"sta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,015 in our Spanish list, against #48,092 for "spy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "spy" and "sta" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "spy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "sta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #53,123 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"spy" and "sta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sei vs spy". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #53,123 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.