stressor

noun

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

The verdict

“stressor” is uncommon English (frequency #59,051 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#59,051
frequency rank, English
54,294
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An environmental condition or influence that stresses (i.e. causes stress for) an organism.

Key facts for stressor
PropertyValue
Headwordstressor
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#59,051
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “stressor” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). stressor lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

stressor is uncommon English at frequency #59,051 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An environmental condition or influence that stresses (i.e. causes stress for) an organism.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for stressor, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. 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.

Etymologically, the entry records: From stress + -or. The correct English form is stressor, spelled S-T-R-E-S-S-O-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    An environmental condition or influence that stresses (i.e. causes stress for) an organism.

Etymology

From stress + -or.

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

How do you spell "stressor"?
"stressor" is spelled S-T-R-E-S-S-O-R.
What does "stressor" mean?
As a noun, "stressor" means: An environmental condition or influence that stresses (i.e. causes stress for) an organism.
What is the origin of the word "stressor"?
From stress + -or. See the full etymology section above for more details.
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 “stressor”

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

  • The one correct English spelling is S-T-R-E-S-S-O-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Other uncommon English words near this rank

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