stet
/stɛt/noun, verb
stet is spelled S-T-E-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 115,751st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, stet means “A symbol used by proofreaders and typesetters to indicate that a word or phrase that was crossed out or changed should remain as it was” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of stet is stets.
How many letters and syllables are in stet?
| Letters | 4: S-T-E-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 15 million words; the 115,751st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is stet?
Stet appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 115,751st 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 stet?
- /stɛt/
Stet 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-stet.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with stet?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as stet.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: test, sett.
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 stet
- stets plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- stetting participle, present
- stetted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does stet mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A symbol used by proofreaders and typesetters to indicate that a word or phrase that was crossed out or changed should remain as it was.
And my copyeditors at HarperCollins want me to use the word “commodified” exclusively, since it’s the only one in Websters. But I see the words as very different, and have issued a big STET on that one.
- 2
An order staying all proceedings in an action.
verb
- 1
To let (edited material) stand, or remain as it was.
Stet that colon.
- 2
To stay all proceedings in an action.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does stet come from?
Borrowed from Latin stet (“let it stand”), an inflection of stō (“to stand”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).