stand still
"stand-still" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“stand still” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To stop moving, to remain motionless.
Corpus desk
Index EN-stand-still · stand still · English
stand still · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-2 2 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | stand still |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “stand still” in English
Rare enough to double-check
stand still is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for stand still in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is stand still, spelled S-T-A-N-D- -S-T-I-L-L.
Definition
- 1To stop moving, to remain motionless.
- 2to tolerate
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how stand still appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
My legs were stiff because I'd been standing still for a long time.
12 ¶ Then spake Ioshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord deliuered vp the Amorites before the children of Israel, and hee said in the sight of Israel, Sunne, stand thou still vpon Gibeon, and thou Moone in the valley of Aialon. 13 And the Sunne stood still, and the Moone stayed, vntill the people had auenged themselues vpō their enemies. Is not this wr…
This word in other languages
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.