stitch
/stɪt͡ʃ/
"stitch" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“stitch” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,334 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #12,334
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 14
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A single pass of a needle in sewing; the loop or turn of the thread thus made.
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 | stitch |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /stɪt͡ʃ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #12,334 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 14 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “stitch” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for stitch is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /stɪt͡ʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,334 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 14 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for stitch, with forms such as "sittch", "sstitch", and "sticth". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 14 confusable-pair relationships, "switch", "swatch", "stretch", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English stiche, from Old English stiċe (“a prick, puncture, stab, thrust with a pointed implement, pricking sensation, stitch, pain in the side, sting”), from Proto-West Germanic *stiki, from Proto-Germanic *stikiz (“prick, piercing, stitch”), f… The correct English form is stitch, spelled S-T-I-T-C-H.
Definition
- 1A single pass of a needle in sewing; the loop or turn of the thread thus made.
- 2A single pass of a needle in sewing; the loop or turn of the thread thus made.
- 3An arrangement of stitches in sewing, or method of stitching in some particular way or style.
- 4An intense stabbing pain under the lower edge of the ribcage, brought on by exercise or laughing.
- 5A local sharp pain (anywhere); an acute pain, like the piercing of a needle.
- 6A single turn of the thread round a needle in knitting; a link, or loop, of yarn
- 7An arrangement of stitches in knitting, or method of knitting in some particular way or style.
- 8A space of work taken up, or gone over, in a single pass of the needle.
- 9A fastening, as of thread or wire, through the back of a book to connect the pages.
- 10Any space passed over; distance.
- 11Any least part of a fabric or clothing.
- 12An incorporation of an existing video into a new one, resulting in a collaborative clip that shows the two videos in a sequence.
- 13A ridge of ploughed land between two furrows.
- 14A contortion, or twist.
Etymology
From Middle English stiche, from Old English stiċe (“a prick, puncture, stab, thrust with a pointed implement, pricking sensation, stitch, pain in the side, sting”), from Proto-West Germanic *stiki, from Proto-Germanic *stikiz (“prick, piercing, stitch”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to stab, pierce”). Cognate with Dutch steek (“prick, stitch”), German Stich (“a prick, piercing, stitch”), Old English stician (“to stick, stab, pierce, prick”). More at stick. Via PIE cognate with Czech steh, Polish ścieg, Russian стежо́к (stežók).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: sittch,sstitch,sticth,stitcch,stitchh,stithc,stittch,sttich,sttitch,tsitch
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of stitch - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
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Using “stitch”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-I-T-C-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /stɪt͡ʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “switch” - see the side-by-side comparison. stitch vs switch
- 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.