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PlainSpell

steal

/stiːl/verb, noun

steal is spelled S-T-E-A-L: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 26 times per million words in written English, the 3,558th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “steal vs steel” about 3,600 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, steal means “To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in steal?

Letters5: S-T-E-A-L
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing26 times per million words; the 3,558th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is steal?

Steal appears 26 times per million words in written English, the 3,558th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce steal?

  • /stiːl/

Steal has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-steel.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-steal.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with steal

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

steal vs steel3,600 G

Sounds like: steel (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with steal?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as steal.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: least, tales, slate, tesla, stale, lates, stela.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of steal

  • steals present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • stealing participle, present
  • stole past, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • stolen participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does steal mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To take illegally, or without the owner's permission, something owned by someone else without intending to return it.

    Three irreplaceable paintings were stolen from the gallery.

  2. 2

    To appropriate without giving credit or acknowledgement.

    They stole my idea for a biodegradable, disposable garbage de-odorizer.

  3. 3

    To get or effect surreptitiously or artfully.

    He stole glances at the pretty woman across the street.

  4. 4

    informalTo acquire at a low price.

    He stole the car for two thousand less than its book value.

  5. 5

    To draw attention unexpectedly in (an entertainment), especially by being the outstanding performer. Usually used in the phrase steal the show.

  6. 6

    To move silently or secretly; to pass unnoticed.

    He stole across the room, trying not to wake her.

  7. 7

    To convey (something) clandestinely.

  8. 8

    To withdraw or convey (oneself) clandestinely.

noun

  1. 1

    The act of stealing.

  2. 2

    slangA piece of merchandise available at a very low, attractive price; the act of buying it.

    Near-synonyms: bargain, good value, value for money

  3. 3

    A situation in which a defensive player actively takes possession of the ball or puck from the opponent's team.

  4. 4

    A stolen base.

  5. 5

    Scoring in an end without the hammer.

  6. 6

    A policy in database systems that a database follows which allows a transaction to be written on nonvolatile storage before its commit occurs.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Steal in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchvoler (to illegally take possession of), bonne affaire (merchandise available at a very attractive price), vol (the act of stealing)
Germanstehlen, entwenden, klauen, mopsen (to illegally take possession of), Schnäppchen (merchandise available at a very attractive price), Diebstahl (the act of stealing)
Portugueseroubar, furtar (to illegally take possession of), roubo, furto (the act of stealing), surrupiar, surripiar (to get or effect surreptitiously or artfully)
Spanishrobar, shacar, fachar, percollar, afanar, mangar (to illegally take possession of)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does steal come from?

Inherited from Middle English stelen, from Old English stelan, from Proto-West Germanic *stelan, from Proto-Germanic *stelaną.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after steal