stour
/ˈstɔː/
"stour" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“stour” is an uncommon English word, ranked #75,451 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #75,451
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Tall; big; stout.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | stour |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈstɔː/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #75,451 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “stour” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for stour is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈstɔː/. Corpus data places it at rank #75,451 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for stour in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English store, stoor, stour (“tall, powerful”), from Old English stōr (“tall, great, mighty, strong”), from Proto-West Germanic *stōr, from Proto-Germanic *stōraz, *stōrijaz (“great, big, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *stā-r-, *stō-r- (“ste… The correct English form is stour, spelled S-T-O-U-R.
Definition
- 1Tall; big; stout.
- 2Strong; powerful; hardy; robust; sturdy.
- 3Bold; audacious.
- 4Rough in manner; stern; austere; ill-tempered.
- 5Rough; hoarse; deep-toned; harsh.
- 6Inflexible, stiff.
- 7Resolute; unyielding.
Etymology
From Middle English store, stoor, stour (“tall, powerful”), from Old English stōr (“tall, great, mighty, strong”), from Proto-West Germanic *stōr, from Proto-Germanic *stōraz, *stōrijaz (“great, big, strong”), from Proto-Indo-European *stā-r-, *stō-r- (“steadfast, firm; standing tall; big, bulky”). Cognates Akin to Scots stour (“tall, large, great, stout”), Saterland Frisian stor (“great, many”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian stor (“large, great”), Icelandic stórr (“large, tall”), Polish stary (“old, ancient”), Albanian stër- (“big, huge”). Compare also stoor, steer, stately.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “stour”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-O-U-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈstɔː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.