Stacking fault density was significantly reduced during physical vapor transport (PVT) growth of silicon carbide (SiC) single crystals in the [11 (2) over bar0] direction by growing the crystals on a (11 (2) over bar0) seed crystal several degrees off-oriented toward <0001>. The density of the basal plane stacking faults rapidly decreased from 100 - 150 cm(-1) to similar to10 cm(-1) as the degree of off-orientation was increased. ne results indicate that stacking fault formation is a kinetically induced process, and that the introduction of off-orientation prevents stacking fault formation through modification of the surface growth kinetics.