# stiff

> English word · Adjective · IPA /stɪf/ · frequency rank #8,357

## Definitions
1. Rigid; hard to bend; inflexible.
2. Inflexible; rigid.
3. Formal in behavior; unrelaxed.
4. Harsh, severe.
5. Painful or more rigid than usual as a result of excessive or unaccustomed exercise.
6. Potent.
7. Expensive, pricey.
8. Dead, deceased.
9. Erect.
10. Having a dense consistency; thick; (by extension) Difficult to stir.
11. Beaten until so aerated that they stand up straight on their own.
12. Of an equation, for which certain numerical solving methods are numerically unstable, unless the step size is taken to be extremely small.
13. Keeping upright.
14. Of a shot, landing so close to the flagstick that it should be very easy to sink the ball with the next shot.
15. Delivered more forcefully than needed, whether intentionally or accidentally, thus causing legitimate pain to the opponent.

## Etymology
From Middle English stiff, stiffe, stif, from Old English stīf, from Proto-West Germanic *stīf, from Proto-Germanic *stīfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *steypós.
See also West Frisian stiif, Dutch stijf, Norwegian Bokmål stiv, German steif; also Latin stīpes, stīpō, from which English stevedore.
The expected Modern English form would be /staɪf/; /stɪf/ is probably originally from compounds such as stiffly, where the vowel was shortened before a consonant cluster.

## Easily confused with
- **stir** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stiff-vs-stir)
- **stig** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stiff-vs-stig)
- **still** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stiff-vs-still)
- **stuff** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stiff-vs-stuff)
- **swift** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stiff-vs-swift)
- **sting** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stiff-vs-sting)
- **stint** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stiff-vs-stint)
- **stink** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stiff-vs-stink)
- **stipe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stiff-vs-stipe)
- **strife** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stiff-vs-strife)
- **stuffs** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stiff-vs-stuffs)
- **stuffy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stiff-vs-stuffy)
- **stifle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stiff-vs-stifle)
- **stiffer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stiff-vs-stiffer)
- **STI** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sti-vs-stiff)
- **Sif** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sif-vs-stiff)
- **sift** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/sift-vs-stiff)
- **saif** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/saif-vs-stiff)
- **staff** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/staff-vs-stiff)
- **stick** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/stick-vs-stiff)

## Common misspellings (6)
`sitff`, `sstiff`, `stfif`, `stif`, `sttiff`, `tsiff`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/stiff