Still-born or stillborn?
still-born is an adjective meaning “Alternative spelling of stillborn”; stillborn is an adjective meaning “Dead at birth”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. still-born is written with a hyphen and stillborn as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between still-born and stillborn?
| still-born | stillborn | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Alternative spelling of stillborn | Dead at birth Ignored, without influence, or unsuccessful from the outset; abortive A baby that is born dead |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈstɪlbɔː(ɹ)n/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | about once in every 2 million words |
Sources: still-born and stillborn 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 still-born and stillborn
still-born
- 1
Alternative spelling of stillborn
stillborn
- 1
Dead at birth
- 2
A baby that is born dead
- 3
Ignored, without influence, or unsuccessful from the outset; abortive
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, still-born or stillborn?
still-born is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; stillborn about once in every 2 million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).