stifle
/ˈstaɪfl̩/
"stifle" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“stifle” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #29,104 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #29,104
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 14
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To make (an animal or person) unconscious or cause (an animal or person) to die by preventing breathing; to smother, to suffocate.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | stifle |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈstaɪfl̩/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #29,104 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 14 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “stifle” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for stifle is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈstaɪfl̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #29,104 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for stifle, with forms such as "sitfle", "sstifle", and "stfile". 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 14 confusable-pair relationships, "still", "style", "stole", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: The verb is derived from Late Middle English stuflen (“to have difficulty breathing due to heat, stifle; to suffocate by drowning, drown”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain, perhaps from stuffen (“to kill by suffocation; to stifle from heat; to… The correct English form is stifle, spelled S-T-I-F-L-E.
Definition
- 1To make (an animal or person) unconscious or cause (an animal or person) to die by preventing breathing; to smother, to suffocate.
- 2To cause (someone) difficulty in breathing, or a choking or gagging feeling.
- 3To prevent (a breath, cough, or cry, or the voice, etc.) from being released from the throat.
- 4To make (something) unable to be heard by blocking it with some medium.
- 5To keep in, hold back, or repress (something).
- 6To prevent (something) from being revealed; to conceal, to hide, to suppress.
- 7To treat (a silkworm cocoon) with steam as part of the process of silk production.
- 8To die of suffocation.
- 9To smother; to make breathing difficult.
Etymology
The verb is derived from Late Middle English stuflen (“to have difficulty breathing due to heat, stifle; to suffocate by drowning, drown”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain, perhaps from stuffen (“to kill by suffocation; to stifle from heat; to extinguish, suppress (body heat, breath, humour, etc.); to deprive a plant of the conditions necessary for growth, choke”) + -el- (derivational infix in verbs, often denoting diminutive, intensive, or repetitive actions or events). Stuffen is derived from Old French estofer, estouffer (“to choke, strangle, suffocate; (figuratively) to inhibit, prevent”) [and other forms] (modern French étouffer), a variant of estoper, estuper (“to block, plug, stop up; to stiffen, thicken”) (modern French étouper (“to caulk”)), influenced by estofer (“to pad, stuff; to upholster”) (modern French étoffer). Estoper is derived from Vulgar Latin *stuppāre, from Latin stuppa (“coarse flax, tow”) (as a stuffing material; from Ancient Greek στύπη (stúpē), στύππη (stúppē) (compare στυππεῖον (stuppeîon)); probably from Pre-Greek) + -āre. According to the Oxford English Dictionary a derivation from Old Norse stífla (“to dam; to choke, stop up”) “appears untenable on the ground both of form and sense”. The noun is derived from the verb.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: sitfle,sstifle,stfile,stifel,stiffle,stiflle,stilfe,sttifle,tsifle
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of stifle - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "stifle"?
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Using “stifle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-I-F-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈstaɪfl̩/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “still” - see the side-by-side comparison. stifle vs still
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.