statevsstatueTell them apart

Quick tell: state is a verb, statue is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“state” is a verb and “statue” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,789
“state” frequency rank
#4,718
“statue” frequency rank
15507
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature state statue
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de stater. Figure en pied, de plein relief, représentant une divinité, un personnage humain, une allégorie, un animal.

Where the eye mixes state and statue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
state
6 ch
statue

Why the eye confuses state with statue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: state is \stat\ while statue is \sta.ty\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

state is recorded at frequency rank #10,789, classified as averb, pronounced \stat\. statue is at rank #4,718, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sta.ty\.

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 15507, this pair ranks #392,039 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of state vs statue

Shared letters: aest. Private to "state": -. Private to "statue": u.

"state" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "statue" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • statesatte · sstate · staet · statte · sttae · sttate · tsate
  • statuesattue · sstatue · stateu · stattue · staute · sttatue · sttaue · tsatue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "state" and "statue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "state" is a verb and "statue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "state" or "statue" show up more?
"statue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,718 in our French list, against #10,789 for "state". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "state" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "statue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #392,039 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "state" and "statue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stase vs state". 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 #392,039 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