ENGLISH THESAURUS & DICTIONARY

stop

noun · verb

Words like stop

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MEANING & USAGE

Definitions & examples

01noun

the event of something ending

“it came to a stop at the bottom of the hill”

02noun

the act of stopping something

“the third baseman made some remarkable stops”

“his stoppage of the flow resulted in a flood”

03noun

a brief stay in the course of a journey

“they made a stopover to visit their friends”

04noun

the state of inactivity following an interruption

“the negotiations were in arrest”

“held them in check”

17 more meanings

05noun

a spot where something halts or pauses

“his next stop is Atlanta”

06noun

a consonant produced by stopping the flow of air at some point and suddenly releasing it

“his stop consonants are too aspirated”

07noun

a punctuation mark (‘.’) placed at the end of a declarative sentence to indicate a full stop or after abbreviations

“in England they call a period a ‘stop’”

08noun

(music) a knob on an organ that is pulled to change the sound quality from the organ pipes

“the organist pulled out all the stops”

09noun

a mechanical device in a camera that controls size of aperture of the lens

“the new cameras adjust the diaphragm automatically”

10noun

a restraint that checks the motion of something

“he used a book as a stop to hold the door open”

11noun

an obstruction in a pipe or tube

“we had to call a plumber to clear out the blockage in the drainpipe”

12verb

come to a halt, stop moving

“the car stopped”

“She stopped in front of a store window”

13verb

put an end to a state or an activity

“Quit teasing your little brother”

14verb

stop from happening or developing

“Block his election”

“Halt the process”

15verb

interrupt a trip

“we stopped at Aunt Mary's house”

“they stopped for three days in Florence”

16verb

cause to end

“stop a car”

“stop the thief”

17verb

hold back, as of a danger or an enemy; check the expansion or influence of

“Arrest the downward trend”

“Check the growth of communism in South East Asia”

18verb

seize on its way

“The fighter plane was ordered to intercept an aircraft that had entered the country's airspace”

19verb

have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical

“the bronchioles terminate in a capillary bed”

“Your rights stop where you infringe upon the rights of other”

20verb

render unsuitable for passage

“block the way”

“barricade the streets”

21verb

stop and wait, as if awaiting further instructions or developments

“Hold on a moment!”

Meanings and examples from Open English WordNet 2025. About our sources ↗

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Expressions with “stop”

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Explore multiword dictionary entries containing this word. Each has its own meanings and related words.

stop up bus stop pit stop flag stop flue stop full stop reed stop rest stop