show-stopper

1. 1.

   an act so striking or impressive that the show must be delayed until the audience quiets down

   Synonymsshowstopperstopper

   Broaderact
2. 2.

   something that is strikingly attractive or has great popular appeal

   “she has a show-stopper of a smile”

   “the brilliant orange flowers against the green foliage were a showstopper”

   Synonymsshowstopper

   Broaderattraction

Questions about show-stopper

What does show-stopper mean?

show-stopper means "an act so striking or impressive that the show must be delayed until the audience quiets down". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in show-stopper?

show-stopper has 3 syllables: show--stop-per. The stress falls on "show-".

What is another word for show-stopper?

Close synonyms include showstopper, stopper, showstopper. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is show-stopper a common word?

show-stopper is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.