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stonewall

stone·wall/ˈstoʊnwɔl/noun, verb, adjective

stonewall is spelled S-T-O-N-E-W-A-L-L: 9 letters and 2 syllables (stone·wall). It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,270th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, stonewall means “An obstruction” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of stonewall is stonewalls.

How many letters and syllables are in stonewall?

Letters9: S-T-O-N-E-W-A-L-L
Syllables2: stone·wall
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 29,270th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

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).

How common is stonewall?

Stonewall appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,270th 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 stonewall?

  • UK /ˈstəʊnwɔːl/
  • US /ˈstoʊnwɔl/
  • /ˈstoʊnwɑl/

Stonewall has 2 syllables, split stone·wall in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-stonewall.ogg, En-au-stonewall.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-Stonewall.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with stonewall

Also written: stone-wall (one word or two).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of stonewall

  • stonewalls plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • stonewalling participle, present
  • stonewalled participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does stonewall mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    An obstruction.

  2. 2

    A refusal to cooperate.

  3. 3

    An alcoholic drink popular in colonial America, consisting of apple cider (or sometimes applejack) mixed with rum (or sometimes gin or whisky).

  4. 4

    Alternative form of stone wall (“wall made of stone”).

verb

  1. 1

    To obstruct.

  2. 2

    informalTo refuse to answer or cooperate, especially in supplying information.

    At the press conference, the Prime Minister appeared to be stonewalling when asked about tax increases.

adjective

  1. 1

    UKCertain, definite.

noun

as Stonewall
  1. 1

    Alternative letter-case form of stonewall (“alcoholic drink”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Stonewall in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Portuguesetergiversar (refusal to cooperate)
Frenchbétonner (to refuse to answer or cooperate)
Germanabblocken, mauern (to refuse to answer or cooperate)
Spanishentorpecer, rehusarse a cooperar, andar con evasivas, andarse con evasivas, negarse a contestar (to refuse to answer or cooperate)

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 stonewall come from?

From Middle English stonwal, stone wall, stanewalle (“wall made of stone”), from Old English stānweall (“stonewall”), equivalent to stone + wall. The alcoholic drink (sense 3) was perhaps named thus because its effect was as potent as running into a stone wall.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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