stop
/stɔp/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.52 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "I stopped at the traffic lights."
- "The riots stopped when police moved in."
- "Soon the rain will stop."
- "Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer."
- "The sight of the armed men stopped him in his tracks."
- "This guy is a fraudster. I need to stop the cheque I wrote him."
Etymology
From Middle English stoppen, stoppien, from Old English stoppian (“to stop, close”), from Proto-West Germanic *stoppōn, from Proto-Germanic *stuppōną (“to stop, close”), *stuppijaną (“to push, pierce, prick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp-, *(s)tewb- (“to push; stick”), from *(s)tew- (“to bump; impact; butt; push; beat; strike; hit”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian stopje (“to stop, block”), West Frisian stopje (“to stop”), Dutch stoppen (“to stop”), Low German stoppen (“to stop”), German stopfen (“to be filling, stuff”), German stoppen (“to stop”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål stoppe (“to stop”), Icelandic, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish stoppa (“to stop”), Middle High German stupfen, stüpfen (“to pierce”). More at stuff, stump. Alternative etymology derives Proto-West Germanic *stoppōn from an assumed Vulgar Latin *stūpāre, *stuppāre (“to stop up with tow”), from stūpa, stīpa, stuppa (“tow, flax, oakum”), from Ancient Greek στύπη (stúpē), στύππη (stúppē, “tow, flax, oakum”). This derivation, however, is doubtful, as the earliest instances of the Germanic verb do not carry the meaning of "stuff, stop with tow". Rather, these senses developed later in response to influence from similar sounding words in Latin and Romance.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *(s)tewp-, stoppen, stoppian, *stoppōn, *stuppōną, stoppe
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /stɔp/
- British English: /stɒp/
Usage
Inflected Forms
stops (present, singular)
stopping (participle, present)
stopped (participle, past)
stopped (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
stopped (first person, past)
stoppest (archaic, present)
stopped (past, second person)
stoppedst (archaic, past)
stoppeth (archaic, present)
stopped (past, singular)