stop someone's clock

verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"stop-someone-s-clock" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“stop someone's clock” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
20
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To kill someone.

Key facts for stop someone's clock
PropertyValue
Headwordstop someone's clock
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters20
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “stop someone's clock” sits in English frequency

stop someone's clock falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

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

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for stop someone's clock is 20 letters long, classified as a verb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for stop someone's clock, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is stop someone's clock, spelled S-T-O-P- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E-'-S- -C-L-O-C-K.

Definition

  1. 1
    To kill someone.
  2. 2
    To clean someone's clock; to make incapable of action; to thwart.
  3. 3
    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see stop, clock.

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 someone's clock"?
"stop someone's clock" is spelled S-T-O-P- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E-'-S- -C-L-O-C-K.
What does "stop someone's clock" mean?
As a verb, "stop someone's clock" means: To kill someone.
What language does "stop someone's clock" come from?
"stop someone's clock" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Using “stop someone's clock”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is S-T-O-P- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E-'-S- -C-L-O-C-K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list