stop up

verb

"stop-up" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“stop up” 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
7
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To fill a hole or cavity, or block (an opening or passage), as with a plug.

Key facts for stop up
PropertyValue
Headwordstop up
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters7
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “stop up” sits in English frequency

stop up 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 up is 7 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.

stop up has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is stop up, spelled S-T-O-P- -U-P.

Definition

  1. 1
    To fill a hole or cavity, or block (an opening or passage), as with a plug.
  2. 2
    To permanently close or block (a road or path); to legally extinguish a right of way.
  3. 3
    To increase the aperture of a photographic lens, moving from an f/stop represented by a higher number to an f/stop represented by a lower number and causing more light to pass into the camera.

Antonyms

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 up"?
"stop up" is spelled S-T-O-P- -U-P.
What does "stop up" mean?
As a verb, "stop up" means: To fill a hole or cavity, or block (an opening or passage), as with a plug.
What language does "stop up" come from?
"stop up" 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.

Using “stop up”

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

  • The one correct English spelling is S-T-O-P- -U-P - 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