stick in the mud
/ˈstɪk.ɪn.ðəˌmʌd/
"stick-in-the-mud" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“stick in the mud” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A person unwilling to participate in activities; a curmudgeon or party pooper.
Corpus desk
Index EN-stick-in-the-mud · stick in the mud · English
stick in the mud · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 16 letters
- VOW-4 4 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 | stick in the mud |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈstɪk.ɪn.ðəˌmʌd/ |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “stick in the mud” in English
Rare enough to double-check
stick in the mud is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈstɪk.ɪn.ðəˌmʌd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
stick in the mud doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is stick in the mud, spelled S-T-I-C-K- -I-N- -T-H-E- -M-U-D.
Definition
- 1A person unwilling to participate in activities; a curmudgeon or party pooper.
- 2More generally, one who is slow, old-fashioned, or unprogressive; an old fogey.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how stick in the mud appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Have a little fun sometimes and don't be such a stick-in-the-mud.
"I don't hold back like you do. Even Tedd's dad can tell you're a stick-in-the-mud. That's why he made you the supervisor of this party."
Synonyms
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.