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“Staff” or “Staph”

staff / staph are similar-sounding terms with different meanings (referred to as homophones). To better understand the differences, see below for definitions, pronunciation guides, and example sentences using each term.

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Definitions

What each term means

Same sound, different spellings and meanings, shown with a pronunciation guide for each term.

staff s·t·AE·f

  • nounpersonnel who assist their superior in carrying out an assigned task.
  • nouna strong rod or stick with a specialized utilitarian purpose.
  • nounthe body of teachers and administrators at a school.
  • nounbuilding material consisting of plaster and hair; used to cover external surfaces of temporary structure (as at an exposition) or for decoration.
  • nouna rod carried as a symbol.
  • noun(music) the system of five horizontal lines on which the musical notes are written.
  • verbprovide with staff.
  • verbserve on the staff of.

staph s·t·AE·f

No dictionary entry for this spelling — see the usage examples below for how it shows up in writing.

Usage

Examples in context

Real sentences for each spelling. Hover an example to copy it.

“staff”

  • It employed three full-time staff, with other staff seconded to…
  • Staff.
  • It was not a staff association; the staff association for…
  • …incident, Mai-Mai killed two park staff and a soldier, while three…
  • The separate Chief Police Officers Staff Association acts for chief officers.
  • …attended the Royal Swedish Army Staff College from 1940 to 1942,…
  • …along with contact information for staff members along with their research…
  • …of herbaria and their associated staff.
  • …with a new director and staff.
  • …Center, attended by general and staff counsel from hundreds of member…

“staph”

No example sentences found for this spelling.

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license. Definitions are drawn from WordNet.

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