stiffen

Other forms of stiffen

past tense

stiffenned·

present participle

stiffenning·

third person

stiffens·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about stiffen

What does stiffen mean?

stiffen means "become stiff or stiffer". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in stiffen?

stiffen has 2 syllables: stif-fen. The stress falls on "stif". In IPA it is /ˈstɪfən/.

What is another word for stiffen?

Close synonyms include tighten, tighten up, constrain. 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.

What is the opposite of stiffen?

The recorded antonyms are loosen, loosen.

Is stiffen a common word?

stiffen is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.