Which to use
“shades” and “stades” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,617
- “shades” frequency rank
- #8,784
- “stades” frequency rank
- 51401
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shades | stades |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de shade. | Pluriel de stade. |
Letter map: shades vs stades
Shared letters muted; letters that set shades and stades apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Corpus notes: shades and stades
shades and stades are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - h in “shades” becomes t in “stades”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51401, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shades is recorded at frequency rank #42,617, classified as anoun. stades is at rank #8,784, tagged as anoun, pronounced \stad\.
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 51401, this pair ranks #155,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shades vs stades
Shared letters: ades. Private to "shades": h. Private to "stades": t.
"shades" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "stades" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shades" and "stades" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "shades" or "stades"?
Useful next steps
You've compared "shades" and "stades". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "shades" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stades" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #155,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shades" and "stades" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sardes vs shades". 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 #155,269 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.