set store by

verb

"set-store-by" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“set store by” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To believe that something is very necessary or important; to value highly.

Corpus desk

Index EN-set-store-by · set store by · English

set store by · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for set store by
PropertyValue
Headwordset store by
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “set store by” in English

set store byfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

set store by is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To believe that something is very necessary or important; to value highly.".

set store by doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is set store by, spelled S-E-T- -S-T-O-R-E- -B-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    To believe that something is very necessary or important; to value highly.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how set store by appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. We live in a society that sets great store by science and technology.
  2. [...] we rather wonder whether too much store is set on intellectual as against executive ability as a pre-requisite in the good railway officer.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "set store by"?
"set store by" is spelled S-E-T- -S-T-O-R-E- -B-Y.
What does "set store by" mean?
As a verb, "set store by" means: To believe that something is very necessary or important; to value highly.
What language does "set store by" come from?
"set store by" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
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Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list