stitch
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
6 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "stitch", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "stitch" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "stitch" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
stitch is aEnglishnoun. It means: A single pass of a needle in sewing; the loop or turn of the thread thus made. Pronounced /stɪt͡ʃ/. Often confused with switch and swatch.
| 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) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for stitch is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for stitch, with forms such as "sittch", "sstitch", and "sticth". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, 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… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is stitch, spelled S-T-I-T-C-H, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
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
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for stitch
Misspelling Variants of "stitch"
Frequency rank: #12,334 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "stitch"?
What does "stitch" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "stitch"?
How do you pronounce "stitch"?
What is the origin of the word "stitch"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: