Stanch or staunch?
stanch is a verb meaning “To stop the flow of (water or some other liquid)”; staunch is an adjective meaning “Not permitting water or some other liquid to escape or penetrate; watertight”. Use stanch as a verb and staunch as an adjective. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) staunch is about 19 times as common as stanch.
What is the difference between stanch and staunch?
| stanch | staunch | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adverb, verb, noun | adjective, verb, noun |
| Meaning | USTo stop the flow of (water or some other liquid) USTo stop the flow of (blood); also, to stop (a wound) from bleeding USA floodgate by which water is accumulated, for floating a boat over a shallow part of a stream by its release; also, a dam or lock in a river | Not permitting water or some other liquid to escape or penetrate; watertight Impermeable to air or other gases; airtight Synonym of afterdamp (“suffocating gases present in a coal mine after an explosion caused by firedamp”) |
| Example | A small amount of cotton can be stuffed into the nose to stanch the flow of blood if necessary | Without our staunch front line the enemy would have split the regiment |
| Forms | stanches, stanching, stanched | stauncher, staunchest |
| Pronunciation | /stɑːn(t)ʃ/ /stæn(t)ʃ/ /stɔn(t)ʃ/ | /stɔːn(t)ʃ/ /stoːn(t)ʃ/ /stɔn(t)ʃ/ |
| In writing | about once in every 12 million words | 1.6 times per million words |
Sources: stanch and staunch in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of stanch and staunch
stanch
- 1
USTo stop the flow of (water or some other liquid)
- 2
USAlternative spelling of staunch (“that which stanches; act of stanching”)
- 3
USA floodgate by which water is accumulated, for floating a boat over a shallow part of a stream by its release; also, a dam or lock in a river
- 4
USTo stop the flow of (blood); also, to stop (a wound) from bleeding
A small amount of cotton can be stuffed into the nose to stanch the flow of blood if necessary
- 5
USTo make (a building or other structure) watertight or weatherproof
- 6
USTo check or stop, or deter (an action)
- 7
USTo stop the progression of (an illness); also, to alleviate (pain); often followed by of: to relieve (someone's) pain
- 8
USOf bleeding: to stop
staunch
- 1
Not permitting water or some other liquid to escape or penetrate; watertight
- 2
Alternative spelling of stanch
- 3
Synonym of afterdamp (“suffocating gases present in a coal mine after an explosion caused by firedamp”)
- 4
Alternative spelling of stanch (“a floodgate by which water is accumulated, for floating a boat over a shallow part of a stream by its release; also, a dam or lock in a river”)
- 5
Impermeable to air or other gases; airtight
- 6
Strongly built; also, in good or strong condition
- 7
Staying true to one's aims or principles; firm, resolute, unswerving
Without our staunch front line the enemy would have split the regiment
- 8
Dependable, loyal, reliable, trustworthy
He’s been a staunch supporter of mine through every election
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, stanch or staunch?
stanch appears about once in every 12 million words; staunch 1.6 times per million words.
stanch about once in every 12 million wordsstaunch 1.6 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search stanch vs staunch?
“stanch vs staunch” is searched about 590 times a month on Google and 30 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“staunch vs stanch”, “stanch or staunch”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.