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stub

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Something blunted, stunted, or cut short, such as stubble or a stump.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

stuhb
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈstʌb

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. Something blunted, stunted, or cut short, such as stubble or a stump.

  2. A piece of certain paper items, designed to be torn off and kept for record or identification purposes.

  3. A small piece

  4. The smallest remainder of a smoked cigarette; a butt.

  5. A pen with a short, blunt nib.

  6. The remaining part of the docked tail of a dog

verb

  1. transitive

    To remove most of a tree, bush, or other rooted plant by cutting it close to the ground.

  2. transitive

    To remove a plant by pulling it out by the roots.

  3. transitive

    To jam, hit, or bump, especially a toe.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Something blunted, stunted, or cut short, such as stubble or a stump.

Used this way, stub 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
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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.

Smallest

cigarette stubcigar stub

Placeholder

pencil stub

Other combinations

check stubticket stubpay stubstub axleclient stub

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • stub outverbCompound term

    Extinguish by crushing.

  • stub nailnounCompound term

    A short thick nail.

  • ticket stubnounCompound term

    A torn part of a ticket returned to the holder as a receipt.

  • check stubnounCompound term

    The part of a check that is retained as a record.

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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.