Word.ws English Dictionary

still

/ˈstɪl/

still adjective: not moving; calm. Also the alternative spelling of styll.

Adjective

still (comparative stiller or more still, superlative stillest or most still)

  1. Not moving; calm.
    • Sit there and stay still!
    • Still waters run deep.
  2. Not effervescing; not sparkling.
    • still water; still wines
  3. Uttering no sound; silent.
    • The sea that roared at thy command, / At thy command was still.c. 1711, Joseph Addison, How are thy Servants blest, O Lord!
  4. (not comparable) Having the same stated quality continuously from a past time
    • To follow the still President’s marching orders, all that Secretary Ronnie Puno has to do is to follow the road map laid out by Justice Azcuna in his “separate” opinion.2007 January 3, Gerry Geronimo, “Unwanted weed starts to sprout from a wayward ponencia”, in Manila Standard, archived from the original on 19 Jul 2011
  5. Comparatively quiet or silent; soft; gentle; low.
    • […] a still small voice.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 19:12
  6. (obsolete) Constant; continual.
    • By still practice learn to know thy meaning.c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • […] A lifelong tract of time reveal’d;
      ⁠The fruitful hours of still increase;
      ⁠Days order’d in a wealthy peace,
      And those five years its richest field.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XLV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 68
  7. (dated) Dormant.
    • a still spore

Adverb

still (not comparable)

  1. Without motion.
    • They stood still until the guard was out of sight.
  2. (aspect) Up to a time, as in the preceding time.
    • Is it still raining? It was still raining five minutes ago.
    • We’ve seen most of the sights, but we are still visiting the museum.
    Synonyms:
    yet
  3. (degree) To an even greater degree. Used to modify comparative adjectives or adverbs.
    • Tom is tall; Dick is taller; Harry is still taller / Harry is taller still.
    • The guilt being great, the fear doth still exceed.1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    yet, even
  4. (conjunctive) Nevertheless.
    • I’m not hungry, but I’ll still manage to find room for dessert.
    • Yeah, but still...
    Synonyms:
    nonetheless
  5. (archaic, poetic) Always; invariably; constantly; continuously.
    • Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • [W]hereas many Chymiſts vvould be vaſtly rich, if they could ſtill do in great Quantities vvhat they have ſometimes done in little ones, many have undone themſelves by obſtinately attempting to make even real Experiments more gainful.1661, Robert Boyle, “[Two Essays, Concerning the Unsuccessfulness of Experiments, Containing Divers Admonitions and Observations (Chiefly Chymical) Touching that Subject.] The Second Essay, of...
    Synonyms:
    consistently
  6. (extensive) Even, yet.
    • Some dogs howl; more yelp; still more bark.
    • Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4

Noun (1)

still (plural stills)

  1. A period of calm or silence.
    • the still of the night
    • Between the roar of the thunder and the blatter of the rain there were intervals of an astounding still, of an ominous suspense […]1901, Good Words, volume 42, page 7
  2. A photograph, as opposed to movie footage.
    1. A single frame from a film.
      • One of his best stories was "Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life" (1914), of which there survives only an amusing still, showing poor Mabel Normand chained to the rails by two toughs, the moustached villain threatening her with a sledge-hammer, and an awful sense of that inexorably approaching...1958 February, David Gunston, “Railways on the Screen”, in Railway Magazine, page 87
  3. (slang) A resident of the Falkland Islands.
    Synonyms:
    Benny, Falklander, Kelper

Noun (2)

still (plural stills)

  1. A device for distilling liquids.
  2. (catering) A large water boiler used to make tea and coffee.
  3. (catering) The area in a restaurant used to make tea and coffee, separate from the main kitchen.
  4. A building where liquors are distilled; a distillery.

Verb (1)

still (third-person singular simple present stills, present participle stilling, simple past and past participle stilled)

  1. To calm down, to quiet.
    • to still the raging sea
    • They likewise believed that he, having a full Sway and Command over the Water, had Power to still and compose it, as well as to move and disturb it […]1695, John Woodward, An essay toward a natural history of the earth and terrestrial bodies, especially minerals, page 139
    Synonyms:
    becalm, lull, quell

Verb (2)

still (third-person singular simple present stills, present participle stilling, simple past and past participle stilled)

  1. (obsolete) To trickle, drip.
    • And if that any drop of slombring rest / Did chaunce to still into her wearie spright,1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, book III, canto ii, paragraph xxix
  2. To cause to fall by drops.
  3. To expel spirit from by heat, or to evaporate and condense in a refrigeratory; to distill.
    • The knowledge of stilling is one pretty feat,
      The waters be wholesome, the charges not great1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: […] Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […]...

Proper noun capitalized: Still

Still

  1. A surname.

Also used as

still is also the alternative spelling of styll.

still meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali

still in Hindi

up to a time, as in the preceding time
फिर भी phir bhī

still in Tamil

up to a time, as in the preceding time
இன்னும் iṉṉum

still in Marathi

अजुनही

still in Bengali

এখনও
More languagesFewer languages
still in Telugu
ఇంకా iṅkā
still in Malayalam
അപ്പോഴും, ഇപ്പോഴും
still in Kannada
ಈಗಲೂ, ಇನ್ನೂ
still in Punjabi
ਹਾਲੇ ਵੀ, ਅਜੇ ਵੀ
still in Gujarati
હજુ પણ, હજી પણ
still in Sanskrit
स्थिर sthira
still in Nepali
स्थिर sthira, अझै पनि ajhai pani
still in Arabic
سَاكِن sākin, ثَابِت ṯābit, مُسْتَقِرّ mustaqirr, سَاكِنًا sākinan
still in Malay
masih
still in Indonesian
masih
still in Persian
آرام ârâm, هنوز hanuz, بی حرکت bi-harekat, باز هم bâz ham
still in Thai
นิ่ง nîng, ยัง yang
still in Vietnamese
đứng, đơ, còn

Examples of still in a sentence

  • I’m still not wise enough to answer that.
  • She'd been here many times before, it was true. Still, she held out some hope.
  • It hath been anciently reported, and is still received.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In...
  • Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
  • Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill....
  • An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine.2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):

All 40 example sentences with still

Synonyms of still

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of still

Forms of still

Adjective
comparativestiller
comparativemore still
superlativestillest
superlativemost still
alternative formstil
alternative form (obsolete)stille
alternative form (obsolete)styll
alternative form (obsolete)stylle
Noun
pluralstills
Verb
third-person singular presentstills
present participlestilling
past participlestilled
paststilled

Plural of still: stills

Origin of still

From Middle English stille (“motionless, stationary”), from Old English stille (“still, quiet”), from Proto-West Germanic *stillī, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)telH- (“to be silent; to be still”). Cognate with Scots stil (“still”), Saterland Frisian stil (“motionless, calm, quiet”), West Frisian stil (“quiet, still”), Dutch stil (“quiet, silent, still”), Low German still (“quiet, silent, still”), German still (“still, quiet, tranquil, silent”), Swedish stilla (“quiet, silent, peaceful”), Icelandic stilltur (“set, quiet, calm, still”). Related to stall. (noun: Falkland Islander): Military slang, short for still a Benny, since the military had been instructed not to refer to the islanders by the derogatory term Benny (which see).

Via Middle English stillen, clip of distillen; Old French distiller; Latin distillare, from dis- + stillare, from Latin stilla.

Inherited from Old English stillan.

Words formed from still

Phrases with still

14 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with still

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about still

What does still mean?
Still means not moving; calm.
What is still in Hindi?
Still in Hindi is फिर भी (phir bhī). See Still meaning in Hindi.
How do you use still in a sentence?
I’m still not wise enough to answer that.
What part of speech is still?
Still can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce still?
Still is pronounced /ˈstɪl/.

Words near still in the dictionary

  1. stiligerids
  2. stiling
  3. stilipedid
  4. stilipedids
  5. stilish
  6. still
  7. still alarm
  8. still and all
  9. still and anon
  10. still as a stock
  11. Still Bay

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: still (page history and authors); Still (page history and authors); still (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); still (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); still (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); still (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); still (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); still (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-still.ogg, en-us-still.ogg.

Cite this entry: “still.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/still. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.