stump
/stʌmp/
"stump" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“stump” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #16,143 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #16,143
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The remains of something that has been cut off; especially the remains of a tree, the remains of a limb.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | stump |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /stʌmp/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #16,143 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “stump” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for stump is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /stʌmp/. Corpus data places it at rank #16,143 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for stump, with forms such as "sstump", "stmup", and "sttump". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "sum", "sup", "sums", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English stumpe, stompe (“stump”), from or akin to Middle Low German stump (“stump”) or Middle Dutch stomp, from Old Saxon or Old Dutch *stump, from Proto-West Germanic *stump, from Proto-Germanic *stumpaz (“stump, blunt, part cut off”). Cognate … The correct English form is stump, spelled S-T-U-M-P.
Definition
- 1The remains of something that has been cut off; especially the remains of a tree, the remains of a limb.
- 2The place or occasion at which a campaign takes place; the husting.
- 3A place or occasion at which a person harangues or otherwise addresses a group in a manner suggesting political oration.
- 4One of three small wooden posts which together with the bails make the wicket and that the fielding team attempt to hit with the ball.
- 5An artists’ drawing tool made of rolled paper used to smudge or blend marks made with charcoal, Conté crayon, pencil or other drawing media.
- 6A wooden or concrete pole used to support a house.
- 7A leg.
- 8A pin in a tumbler lock which forms an obstruction to throwing the bolt except when the gates of the tumblers are properly arranged, as by the key.
- 9A pin or projection in a lock to form a guide for a movable piece.
Etymology
From Middle English stumpe, stompe (“stump”), from or akin to Middle Low German stump (“stump”) or Middle Dutch stomp, from Old Saxon or Old Dutch *stump, from Proto-West Germanic *stump, from Proto-Germanic *stumpaz (“stump, blunt, part cut off”). Cognate with Middle Dutch stomp (“stump”), Old High German stumph (“stump”) (German Stumpf), Old Norse stumpr (“stump”). More at stop.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: sstump,stmup,sttump,stummp,stumpp,stupm,sutmp,tsump
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of stump - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "stump"?
What does "stump" mean?
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Using “stump”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-U-M-P - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /stʌmp/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “sum” - see the side-by-side comparison. stump vs sum
- 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.