Which to use
“spots” and “STS” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,161
- “spots” frequency rank
- #40,514
- “STS” frequency rank
- 59675
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spots | STS |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de spot. | Navette spatiale américaine ayant effectué 135 vols pour l'agence spatiale américaine (NASA) entre le 12 avril 1981 et juillet 2011. |
Where the eye mixes spots and STS
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between spots and STS
A purely visual mix-up. spots (\spɔt\) and STS (\ɛs te ɛs\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59675, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spots is recorded at frequency rank #19,161, classified as anoun, pronounced \spɔt\. STS is at rank #40,514, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛs te ɛs\.
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 59675, this pair ranks #101,804 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of spots vs STS
Shared letters: st. Private to "spots": op. Private to "STS": -.
"spots" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "STS" · 3 letters · shape CCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- spots ← sopts · spost · spotss · spotts · sppots · sptos · sspots
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "spots" and "STS" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "spots" or "STS"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "spots" and "STS" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "spots" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "STS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #101,804 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spots" and "STS" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "STS vs suu". 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 #101,804 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.