stone dead

adj

"stone-dead" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“stone dead” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
10
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Utterly dead.

Corpus desk

Index EN-stone-dead · stone dead · English

stone dead · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for stone dead
PropertyValue
Headwordstone dead
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “stone dead” in English

stone deadsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

stone dead is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Utterly dead.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for stone dead in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English stone-dede, stan-ded, standed, equivalent to stone + dead. Compare English stone-cold, stonehard, etc. The correct English form is stone dead, spelled S-T-O-N-E- -D-E-A-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Utterly dead.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how stone dead appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. 'I congratulate you; it was a lovely shot, and mine were vile.' We got out of the boat and ran to the buck, which was shot through the spine and stone dead.
  2. [Owner]: No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage! [Mr. Praline]: The plumage don't enter into it. It's stone dead.

Etymology

From Middle English stone-dede, stan-ded, standed, equivalent to stone + dead. Compare English stone-cold, stonehard, etc.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "stone dead"?
"stone dead" is spelled S-T-O-N-E- -D-E-A-D.
What does "stone dead" mean?
As an adjective, "stone dead" means: Utterly dead.
What is the origin of the word "stone dead"?
From Middle English stone-dede, stan-ded, standed, equivalent to stone + dead. Compare English stone-cold, stonehard, etc. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list