stèlesvsstoresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,515
“stèles” frequency rank
#27,247
“stores” frequency rank
67762
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stèles stores
Definition Pluriel de stèle. Pluriel de store.

Where the eye mixes stèles and stores

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. stèles and stores follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
stèles
6 ch
stores

Visual trap between stèles and stores

A purely visual mix-up. stèles (\stɛl\) and stores (\stɔʁ\) 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 67762, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stèles is recorded at frequency rank #40,515, classified as anoun, pronounced \stɛl\. stores is at rank #27,247, tagged as anoun, pronounced \stɔʁ\.

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 67762, this pair ranks #62,014 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of stèles vs stores

Shared letters: est. Private to "stèles": lè. Private to "stores": or.

"stèles" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "stores" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stores ← sstores · stoers · storess · storres · storse · stroes · sttores · tsores

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "stèles" and "stores" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\stɛl\ versus \stɔʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "stèles" or "stores"?
"stores" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,247 in our French list, against #40,515 for "stèles". 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 "stèles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stores" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,014 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stèles" and "stores" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "socles vs stèles". 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 #62,014 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