stews

noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"stews" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“stews” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #44,506. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#44,506
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A brothel.

Corpus desk

Index EN-stews · stews · English

stews · rank #44,506 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #44,506
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH stewed

Nearest frequency peer: stewed (-1 rank slots)

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.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “stews”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “stews” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

stews vs STS
0% similar
stews vs stow
60% similar
stews vs stops
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for stews
PropertyValue
Headwordstews
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters5
Frequency rank#44,506
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “stews”

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).stewslands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “stewed” (#44,505), “stockman” (#44,507), “steelhead” (#44,504). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “stews” is #44,506. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around stews, anoun. Corpus frequency is #44,506 among 6,566 “S” headwords. Dominant gloss: "A brothel.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for stews, with forms such as "setws", "sstews", and "stesw". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "STS", "stow", "stops", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is stews, spelled S-T-E-W-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    A brothel.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. "They'd call my house a common stews and me a careless host, / "And—I would not anger my gentlemen for the sake of a shiftless ghost."

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • setws
  • sstews
  • stesw
  • stewss
  • stewws
  • sttews
  • stwes
  • tsews

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of stews - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

setws2sstews1stesw2stewss1stewws1sttews1stwes2tsews2
Edit distance from "stews"

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

How do you spell "stews"?
"stews" is spelled S-T-E-W-S.
What does "stews" mean?
As a noun, "stews" means: A brothel.
What words are commonly confused with "stews"?
"stews" is commonly confused with "STS", "stow", "stops". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "stews" come from?
"stews" 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?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "stews", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

snark#44,495Sitka#44,489Teton#44,525Shams#44,483

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

sleaze8 variantsshimmy8 variantsSendai8 variantstrawl8 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list