sensevsstaseWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sense is a verb, stase is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sense” is a verb and “stase” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,539
“sense” frequency rank
#49,372
“stase” frequency rank
78911
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sense stase
Definition Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de sensen. Stabilité, constance dans le temps, immobilité, passivité ; absence de changement, de mouvement, d’activité (voir aussi l’adjectif statique).

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set sense and stase apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
sense
5 ch
stase

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sense is \ˈzɛnzə\ while stase is \staz\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78911, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sense is recorded at frequency rank #29,539, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈzɛnzə\. stase is at rank #49,372, tagged as anoun, pronounced \staz\.

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 78911, this pair ranks #24,552 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sense vs stase

Shared letters: es. Private to "sense": n. Private to "stase": at.

"sense" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "stase" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • senseesnse · senes · sennse · sensse · sesne · snese · ssense
  • stasesatse · sstase · staes · stasse · stsae · sttase

Frequency comparison

sense#29,539
stase#49,372

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sense" and "stase" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sense" is a verb and "stase" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sense" or "stase"?
"sense" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,539 in our French list, against #49,372 for "stase". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering sense vs stase

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “sense”; for a noun, it's “stase”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “sense” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list