spasvsstaseTell them apart

Which to use

“spas” and “stase” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#42,628
“spas” frequency rank
#49,372
“stase” frequency rank
92000
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature spas stase
Definition Pluriel de spa. Stabilité, constance dans le temps, immobilité, passivité ; absence de changement, de mouvement, d’activité (voir aussi l’adjectif statique).

Where the eye mixes spas and stase

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. spas runs 4 letters (CCVC) against stase's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
spas
5 ch
stase

Visual trap between spas and stase

A purely visual mix-up. spas (\spa\) and stase (\staz\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92000, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spas is recorded at frequency rank #42,628, classified as anoun, pronounced \spa\. 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 92000, this pair ranks #3,356 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of spas vs stase

Shared letters: as. Private to "spas": p. Private to "stase": et.

"spas" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "stase" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spas ← saps · spass · sppas · spsa · sspas
  • stase ← satse · sstase · staes · stasse · stsae · sttase

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "spas" for "stase" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\spa\ versus \staz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "spas" vs "stase" - which ranks higher?
"spas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,628 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "spas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stase" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,356 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "spas" and "stase" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "SSE vs stase". 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 #3,356 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