still
/ˈstɪl/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.92 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Not effervescing; not sparkling.
adj
Having the same stated quality continuously from a past time
adv
Without motion.
Example Sentences
- "Sit there and stay still!"
- "Still waters run deep."
- "still water; still wines"
- "The sea that roared at thy command, / At thy command was still."
- "To follow the still President’s marching orders, all that Secretary Ronnie Puno has to do is to follow the road map laid out by Justice Azcuna in his “separate” opinion."
- "[…] a still small voice."
Etymology
From Middle English stille (“motionless, stationary”), from Old English stille (“still, quiet”), from Proto-West Germanic *stillī, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)telH- (“to be silent; to be still”). Cognate with Scots stil (“still”), Saterland Frisian stil (“motionless, calm, quiet”), West Frisian stil (“quiet, still”), Dutch stil (“quiet, silent, still”), Low German still (“quiet, silent, still”), German still (“still, quiet, tranquil, silent”), Swedish stilla (“quiet, silent, peaceful”), Icelandic stilltur (“set, quiet, calm, still”). Related to stall. (noun: Falkland Islander): Military slang, short for still a Benny, since the military had been instructed not to refer to the islanders by the derogatory term Benny (which see).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *(s)telH-, stille, *stillī, stilla, stillare
Usage
Inflected Forms
stiller (comparative)
more still (comparative)
stillest (superlative)
most still (superlative)
stil (alternative)
stille (alternative, obsolete)
styll (alternative, obsolete)
stylle (alternative, obsolete)
stills (plural)
stills (present, singular)
stilling (participle, present)
stilled (participle, past)