stillvsstintWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: still is a adjective, stint is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“still” is an adjective and “stint” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#127
“still” frequency rank
#12,867
“stint” frequency rank
12994
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature still stint
Definition Not moving; calm. To stop (an action); cease, desist.

Where the eye mixes still and stint

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
still
5 ch
stint

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: still is /stɪl/ while stint is /stɪnt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12994, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

still is recorded at frequency rank #127, classified as anadj, pronounced /stɪl/. stint is at rank #12,867, tagged as averb, pronounced /stɪnt/.

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 12994, this pair ranks #478,326 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of still vs stint

Shared letters: ist. Private to "still": l. Private to "stint": n.

"still" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "stint" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stillsitll · sstill · stil · stlil · sttill · tsill
  • stintsitnt · sstint · stinnt · stintt · stitn · stnit · sttint · tsint

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "still" and "stint" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "still" is an adjective and "stint" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "still" or "stint"?
"still" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #127 in our English list, against #12,867 for "stint". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list