stall
/stɔːl/
"stall" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“stall” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,823 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,823
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A compartment for a single animal in a stable or cattle shed.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | stall |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /stɔːl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #9,823 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “stall” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for stall is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /stɔːl/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,823 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for stall, with forms such as "satll", "sstall", and "stal". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "stay", "star", "stan", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English stall, stalle, from Old English steall (“standing place, position”), from Proto-Germanic *stallaz, from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, put, post, stand”). Cognate with French étal, Italian stallo, German Stall, Swedish stall. The correct English form is stall, spelled S-T-A-L-L.
Definition
- 1A compartment for a single animal in a stable or cattle shed.
- 2A stable; a place for cattle.
- 3A bench or table on which small articles of merchandise are exposed for sale.
- 4A small open-fronted shop, for example in a market, food court, etc.
- 5A small partitioned space or roomlet used for a shower or a toilet.
- 6A seat in a theatre close to and (about) level with the stage; traditionally, a seat with arms, or otherwise partly enclosed, as distinguished from the benches, sofas, etc.
- 7An Heathen altar, typically an indoor one, as contrasted with a more substantial outdoor harrow.
- 8A seat in a church, especially one next to the chancel or choir, reserved for church officials and dignitaries.
- 9A church office that entitles the incumbent to the use of a church stall.
- 10A sheath to protect the finger.
- 11The space left by excavation between pillars.
- 12A parking stall; a space for a vehicle in a parking lot or parkade.
Etymology
From Middle English stall, stalle, from Old English steall (“standing place, position”), from Proto-Germanic *stallaz, from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, put, post, stand”). Cognate with French étal, Italian stallo, German Stall, Swedish stall.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: satll,sstall,stal,stlal,sttall,tsall
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of stall - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “stall”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-A-L-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /stɔːl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “stay” - see the side-by-side comparison. stall vs stay
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.