stop sign

noun

"stop-sign" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“stop sign” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
9
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A sign by the side of a road or street, often at an intersection, instructing vehicle drivers to stop.

Corpus desk

Index EN-stop-sign · stop sign · English

stop sign · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-2 2 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 stop sign
PropertyValue
Headwordstop sign
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters9
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “stop sign” in English

stop signsits 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

stop sign is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A sign by the side of a road or street, often at an intersection, instructing vehicle drivers to stop.".

Zero misspellings are on record for stop sign in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is stop sign, spelled S-T-O-P- -S-I-G-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    A sign by the side of a road or street, often at an intersection, instructing vehicle drivers to stop.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. No stop signs, speed limit Nobody's gonna slow me down

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 "stop sign"?
"stop sign" is spelled S-T-O-P- -S-I-G-N.
What does "stop sign" mean?
As a noun, "stop sign" means: A sign by the side of a road or street, often at an intersection, instructing vehicle drivers to stop.
What language does "stop sign" come from?
"stop sign" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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