StatesvsstatueTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#10,245
“States” frequency rank
#4,718
“statue” frequency rank
14963
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature States statue
Definition États-Unis d’Amérique. Figure en pied, de plein relief, représentant une divinité, un personnage humain, une allégorie, un animal.

Where the eye mixes States and statue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. States (CCVCVC) and statue (CCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
States
6 ch
statue

Look-alike desk: States vs statue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: States is \stɛts\ while statue is \sta.ty\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14963, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

States is recorded at frequency rank #10,245, classified as aname, pronounced \stɛts\. 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 14963, this pair ranks #394,445 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of States vs statue

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

"States" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "statue" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • States ← sattes · sstates · staets · statess · statse · stattes · sttaes · sttates
  • statue ← sattue · sstatue · stateu · stattue · staute · sttatue · sttaue · tsatue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "States" and "statue" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "States" is a name and "statue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "States" or "statue"?
"statue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,718 in our French list, against #10,245 for "States". 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 "States" 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 #394,445 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "States" and "statue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stase vs States". 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 #394,445 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