StatesvsstatuesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#10,245
“States” frequency rank
#8,931
“statues” frequency rank
19176
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature States statues
Definition États-Unis d’Amérique. Pluriel de statue.

Where the eye mixes States and statues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
States
7 ch
statues

Why the eye confuses States with statues

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: States is \stɛts\ while statues 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 (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19176, 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\. statues is at rank #8,931, 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 19176, this pair ranks #374,588 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of States vs statues

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

"States" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "statues" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Statessattes · sstates · staets · statess · statse · stattes · sttaes · sttates
  • statuessattues · sstatues · stateus · stattues · statuess · statuse · stautes · sttatues

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "States" and "statues" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "States" is a name and "statues" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "States" or "statues" show up more?
"statues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,931 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.

After this comparison

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 "statues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #374,588 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "States" and "statues" 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 #374,588 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