Meaning & use
stop sign
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A red, eight-sided road sign telling drivers to come to a full halt before continuing.
Grammar: Countable: at the stop sign; two stop signs.
Patterns
- stop at a stop sign
- run a stop sign
She stopped at the stop sign and looked both ways.
A driver who ignores a stop sign can cause a serious accident.
There is a new stop sign at the corner near the school.
nouncountablefigurative
Anything that signals that you must pause or reconsider, used figuratively.
Grammar: Figurative: a stop sign for his plans.
The sudden fever was a stop sign telling him to rest.
For the team, the injury was a stop sign on their winning streak.
Word forms
| plural | stop signs |
|---|
Common combinations
- run a stop sign
- He was fined for running a stop sign.
- stop at the stop sign
- Always stop at the stop sign, even if the road looks empty.
- ignore a stop sign
- Cyclists should not ignore a stop sign.
- red stop sign
- The red stop sign was covered in snow.
- approach a stop sign
- Slow down as you approach a stop sign.
Synonyms and how they differ
- traffic sign
- Traffic sign is the broad category, while stop sign is one specific kind.
- halt sign
- Halt sign is rarer and sometimes appears in older or technical writing, whereas stop sign is the usual term.
- red light
- A red light is a signal that changes, but a stop sign is a fixed sign that never changes.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: stop sign or yield sign?
stop sign vs yield sign
A yield sign tells drivers to give way and may not require a full stop, while a stop sign always does.
Practice
What must a driver do at a stop sign?
Choose one answer.
A stop sign requires a full stop. Slowing and continuing describes a yield sign.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “stop sign”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.