SarrvsstarrTell them apart

Quick tell: Sarr is a name, starr is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Sarr” is a name and “starr” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,004
“Sarr” frequency rank
#29,159
“starr” frequency rank
69163
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Sarr starr
Definition Nom de famille. Rigide, indéformable.

Where the eye mixes Sarr and starr

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Sarr
5 ch
starr

Why the eye confuses Sarr with starr

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Sarr is \saʁ\ while starr is \ʃtaʁ\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69163, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Sarr is recorded at frequency rank #40,004, classified as aname, pronounced \saʁ\. starr is at rank #29,159, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʃtaʁ\.

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 69163, this pair ranks #56,231 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Sarr vs starr

Shared letters: ars. Private to "Sarr": -. Private to "starr": t.

"Sarr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "starr" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Sarrasrr · sar · srar · ssarr
  • starrsatrr · sstarr · strar · sttarr

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Sarr" for "starr" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Sarr" is a name and "starr" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Sarr" or "starr"?
"starr" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,159 in our French list, against #40,004 for "Sarr". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Sarr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "starr" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,231 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Sarr" and "starr" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sabri vs Sarr". 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 #56,231 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list