still
/ˈstɪl/adjective, adverb, noun, verb
still is spelled S-T-I-L-L. The wrong spelling people search most is sitll: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 313 of all searches for the word. Still is an adjective meaning “Not moving; calm”.
How many letters and syllables are in still?
| Letters | 5: S-T-I-L-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 832 times per million words; the 129th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, sitll, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell still?
Still is spelled S-T-I-L-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 308 of the searches for still in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is still?
Still appears 832 times per million words in written English, the 129th 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 still?
- /ˈstɪl/
- [ˈstɪl]
- /ˈstɪo̯/
Still has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-still.ogg, En-us-still.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of still
- stiller comparative
- more still comparative
- stillest superlative
- most still superlative
- stil
- stills plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- stilling participle, present
- stilled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does still mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Not moving; calm.
Sit there and stay still!
- 2
Not effervescing; not sparkling.
still water; still wines
- 3
Uttering no sound; silent.
- 4
Having the same stated quality continuously from a past time
- 5
Comparatively quiet or silent; soft; gentle; low.
- 6
obsoleteConstant; continual.
- 7
datedDormant.
a still spore
adverb
- 1
Without motion.
They stood still until the guard was out of sight.
- 2
Up to a time, as in the preceding time.
Is it still raining? It was still raining five minutes ago.
- 3
To an even greater degree. Used to modify comparative adjectives or adverbs.
Tom is tall; Dick is taller; Harry is still taller / Harry is taller still.
- 4
Nevertheless.
I’m not hungry, but I’ll still manage to find room for dessert.
- 5
archaicAlways; invariably; constantly; continuously.
- 6
Even, yet.
Some dogs howl; more yelp; still more bark.
- 7
Alternative spelling of styll.
noun
- 1
A period of calm or silence.
the still of the night
- 2
A photograph, as opposed to movie footage.
- 3
A single frame from a film.
- 4
slangA resident of the Falkland Islands.
- 5
A device for distilling liquids.
- 6
A large water boiler used to make tea and coffee.
- 7
The area in a restaurant used to make tea and coffee, separate from the main kitchen.
- 8
A building where liquors are distilled; a distillery.
verb
- 1
To calm down, to quiet.
to still the raging sea
- 2
obsoleteTo trickle, drip.
- 3
To cause to fall by drops.
- 4
To expel spirit from by heat, or to evaporate and condense in a refrigeratory; to distill.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Still in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | calme, immobile, statique, fixe , plate , muet |
| German | still, bewegungslos, ruhig , lautlos , noch , doch |
| Portuguese | imóvel, parado , ainda , mesmo assim, ainda assim , alambique |
| Spanish | quieto, glaxo , todavía, aún , todavía actual, que sigue/continúa siéndolo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does still come from?
From Middle English stille (“motionless, stationary”), from Old English stille (“still, quiet”), from Proto-West Germanic *stillī, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)telH- (“to be silent; to be still”). Cognate with Scots stil (“still”), Saterland Frisian stil (“motionless, calm, quiet”), West Frisian stil (“quiet, still”), Dutch stil (“quiet, silent, still”), Low German still (“quiet, silent, still”), German still (“still, quiet, tranquil, silent”), Swedish stilla (“quiet, silent, peaceful”), Icelandic stilltur (“set, quiet, calm, still”). Related to stall.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).