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PlainSpell

stop

UK /stɒp/verb, noun, punct

stop is spelled S-T-O-P: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 331 times per million words in written English, the 282nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, stop means “To cease moving” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in stop?

Letters4: S-T-O-P
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing331 times per million words; the 282nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is stop?

Stop appears 331 times per million words in written English, the 282nd 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 stop?

  • UK /stɒp/
  • British /stɔp/
  • /stɑp/

Stop has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

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

What rhymes with stop?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as stop from its last stressed vowel (/ɒp/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: post, spot, tops, pots.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of stop

  • stops present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • stopping participle, present
  • stopped participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • stahp
  • stawp

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

What does stop mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To cease moving.

    I stopped at the traffic lights.

  2. 2

    Not to continue.

    The riots stopped when police moved in.

  3. 3

    To cause (something) to cease moving or progressing.

    The sight of the armed men stopped him in his tracks.

  4. 4

    To cease; to no longer continue.

    One of the wrestlers suddenly stopped fighting.

  5. 5

    To cause (something) to come to an end.

    The referees stopped the fight.

  6. 6

    To interrupt, prevent or end the activity of someone or something.

    Don't let me stop you working.

  7. 7

    To close or block an opening.

    He stopped the wound with gauze.

  8. 8

    To adjust the aperture of a camera lens.

    To achieve maximum depth of field, he stopped down to an f-stop of 22.

noun

  1. 1

    A (usually marked) place where buses, trams or trains halt to let passengers get on and off, usually smaller than a station.

    They agreed to meet at the bus stop.

  2. 2

    An action of stopping; interruption of travel.

    That stop was not planned.

  3. 3

    That which stops, impedes, or obstructs; an obstacle; an impediment.

  4. 4

    A device intended to block the path of a moving object

    door stop

  5. 5

    A device, or piece, as a pin, block, pawl, etc., for arresting or limiting motion, or for determining the position to which another part shall be brought.

  6. 6

    A member, plain or moulded, formed of a separate piece and fixed to a jamb, against which a door or window shuts.

  7. 7

    A consonant sound in which the passage of air is temporarily blocked by the lips, tongue, or glottis.

  8. 8

    A symbol used for purposes of punctuation and representing a pause or separating clauses, particularly a full stop, comma, colon or semicolon.

  9. 9

    UKA small well-bucket; a milk-pail.

  10. 10

    The squark that is the superpartner of a top quark.

punct

  1. 1

    Used to indicate the end of a sentence in a telegram.

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

Stop in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchs'arrêter (to cease moving), cesser, arrêter (not to continue – see also cease, desist), arrêt, halte (place to get on and off mass transport), point (punctuation symbol)
Germananhalten, stehen bleiben, stoppen (to cease moving), aufhören (not to continue – see also cease, desist), Haltestelle, Busstopp (place to get on and off mass transport)
Portugueseparar (to cease moving), deixar de (not to continue – see also cease, desist), ponto, parada, paragem (place to get on and off mass transport), descontinuar (to cause to come to an end – see also…)
Spanishparar, pararse (to cease moving), dejar de, parar de (not to continue – see also cease, desist), parada (place to get on and off mass transport), entullecer (to cause to cease moving – see also detain)

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 stop come from?

From Middle English stoppen, stoppien, from Old English stoppian (“to stop, close”), from Proto-West Germanic *stoppōn, from Proto-Germanic *stuppōną (“to stop, close”), *stuppijaną (“to push, pierce, prick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp-, *(s)tewb- (“to push; stick”), from *(s)tew- (“to bump; impact; butt; push; beat; strike; hit”).

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

What to look up after stop