startvsstaseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,662
“start” frequency rank
#49,372
“stase” frequency rank
56034
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature start stase
Definition Départ, pour les courses de sprint. Stabilité, constance dans le temps, immobilité, passivité ; absence de changement, de mouvement, d’activité (voir aussi l’adjectif statique).

Where the eye mixes start and stase

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
start
5 ch
stase

Visual trap between start and stase

A purely visual mix-up. start (\staʁt\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56034, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

start is recorded at frequency rank #6,662, classified as anoun, pronounced \staʁt\. 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 56034, this pair ranks #123,653 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of start vs stase

Shared letters: ast. Private to "start": r. Private to "stase": e.

"start" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "stase" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • startsatrt · sstart · starrt · startt · statr · sttart · tsart
  • stasesatse · sstase · staes · stasse · stsae · sttase

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "start" for "stase" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\staʁt\ versus \staz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "start" vs "stase" - which ranks higher?
"start" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,662 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "start" 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 #123,653 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "start" 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 #123,653 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