stun
/stʌn/
"stun" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“stun” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #17,969 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #17,969
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To incapacitate; especially by inducing disorientation or unconsciousness.
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 | stun |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /stʌn/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #17,969 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “stun” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for stun is 4 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /stʌn/. Corpus data places it at rank #17,969 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for stun, with forms such as "sstun", "stnu", and "sttun". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "su", "sun", "sub", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English stonen, stone (“to astonish, stun, numb”, also stoneyen), probably either directly or indirectly from Anglo-Norman estoner (“to stun, astonish”), from Late Latin *stunāre, from Frankish *stunōn (“to thunder, crash”) or perhaps … The correct English form is stun, spelled S-T-U-N.
Definition
- 1To incapacitate; especially by inducing disorientation or unconsciousness.
- 2To shock or surprise.
- 3To hit the cue ball so that it slides without topspin or backspin (and with or without sidespin) and continues at a natural angle after contact with the object ball
- 4To enter a stunned state.
- 5To confiscate (an unguarded rifle, magazine, piece of equipment, etc.) from an unsuspecting soldier as punishment for neglect.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English stonen, stone (“to astonish, stun, numb”, also stoneyen), probably either directly or indirectly from Anglo-Norman estoner (“to stun, astonish”), from Late Latin *stunāre, from Frankish *stunōn (“to thunder, crash”) or perhaps from an unattested Latin *extonāre (“to thunder out, make a thunderous sound”), from tonāre ("to thunder"; compare Latin attonāre). An alternative etymology derives stonen from Old English stunian (“to smash, thunder”), from Proto-West Germanic *stunōn. See also astonish, astound. Compare Swedish stöna (“to moan, groan”), Danish stønne (“to moan, groan”), Icelandic stynja (“to moan”), Occitan estonar (“to surprise”), and French étonner (“to surprise”), and more distantly, Dutch steunen (“to groan; support”), German stöhnen (“to groan, moan”), German staunen (“to be astonished, be amazed, marvel at”), and Russian стонать (stonatʹ), стена́ть (stenátʹ, “to moan, groan”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: sstun,stnu,sttun,stunn,sutn,tsun
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of stun - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "stun"?
What does "stun" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "stun"?
How do you pronounce "stun"?
What is the origin of the word "stun"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “stun”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-T-U-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /stʌn/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “su” - see the side-by-side comparison. stun vs su
- 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.