Which to use
“stade” and “stèle” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,191
- “stade” frequency rank
- #25,139
- “stèle” frequency rank
- 26330
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stade | stèle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mesure de longueur valant à peu près 180 mètres. | Monument monolithe ayant la forme d’un fût de colonne, d’un obélisque, d’une dalle dressée et sculptée ou peinte, qui sert le plus souvent à marquer l’emplacement d’une sépulture. |
Where the eye mixes stade and stèle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. stade and stèle follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between stade and stèle
A purely visual mix-up. stade (\stad\) and stèle (\stɛl\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26330, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stade is recorded at frequency rank #1,191, classified as anoun, pronounced \stad\. stèle is at rank #25,139, tagged as anoun, pronounced \stɛl\.
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 26330, this pair ranks #335,675 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of stade vs stèle
Shared letters: est. Private to "stade": ad. Private to "stèle": lè.
"stade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "stèle" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- stade ← satde · sstade · stadde · staed · stdae · sttade · tsade
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "stade" for "stèle" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "stade" or "stèle" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "stade" and "stèle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "stade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stèle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #335,675 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stade" and "stèle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stase vs stèle". 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 #335,675 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.