stop
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To end an action, or to stop moving.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
stahpIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈstɑp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To cause (something) to cease moving or progressing.
transitive
To cease; to no longer continue.
transitive
To cause (something) to come to an end.
intransitive
Not to continue.
transitive
To close or block an opening.
(transitive, intransitive, photography, often with "up" or "down") To adjust the aperture of a camera lens.
noun
The act of stopping something
“The third baseman made some remarkable stops.”
An action of stopping; interruption of travel.
That which stops, impedes, or obstructs; an obstacle; an impediment.
A (usually marked) place where buses, trams or trains halt to let passengers get on and off, usually smaller than a station.
A device intended to block the path of a moving object
A symbol used for purposes of punctuation and representing a pause or separating clauses, particularly a full stop, comma, colon or semicolon.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To cause (something) to cease moving or progressing.
Used this way, stop is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- cease , more formal, and heavier in everyday conversation
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A gambling card game in which chips are placed on the ace and king and queen and jack of separate suits (taken from a separate deck).
Fastener consisting of a narrow strip of welded metal used to join steel members.
An act so striking or impressive that the show must be delayed until the audience quiets down.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A knot that prevents a rope from passing through a hole.
Stop moving or become immobilized.
The temporal end.
A consonant produced by stopping the flow of air at some point and suddenly releasing it.
The ratio of the focal length to the diameter of a (camera) lens system.
An acid bath used to stop the action of a developer.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.