stopper

1. 1.

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

   Synonymsshow-stoppershowstopper

   Broaderact
2. 2.

   a remark to which there is no polite conversational reply

   Synonymsconversation stopper

   Broaderremark
3. 3.

   (bridge) a playing card with a value sufficiently high to insure taking a trick in a particular suit

   “if my partner has a spade stopper I can bid no trump”

   Broaderplaying card

   bridge

4. 4.

   blockage consisting of an object designed to fill a hole tightly

   Synonymsplugstopple

   Broaderblockage

   Narrowerbungcorkdrainplugearplugfippletampiontampontap

1. 1.

   close or secure with or as if with a stopper

   “She stoppered the wine bottle”

   “The mothers stoppered their babies' mouths with pacifiers”

   Synonymsstopple

   Broaderplug

Other forms of stopper

plural

stoppers·

past tense

stopperred·

present participle

stopperring·

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 stopper

What does stopper mean?

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 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in stopper?

stopper has 2 syllables: stop-per. The stress falls on "stop". In IPA it is /ˈstɑpɚ/.

What is another word for stopper?

Close synonyms include show-stopper, showstopper, conversation stopper, plug, stopple. 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 stopper a common word?

stopper 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.