Definition of STANCH

Staunch and Stanch

Both stanch and staunch come from the Anglo-French estancher, meaning “to check or stop the flowing of.” Both have been in use for many hundreds of years. And most dictionaries will list them as having the exact same meaning. They are, in fact, variants of each other. But there's a catch: staunch is more commonly used as an adjective (it has several meanings in this role, including “steadfast in loyalty or principle” and "substantial"), and stanch is more commonly used as a verb (common meanings are "to check or stop the flowing of" and "to stop or check in its course"). Here are example of each in typical use:

a staunch supporter/advocate

staunch resistance/allegiance

to stanch the flow/bleeding

stanching the loss of jobs/revenue

Note that saying that something is more commonly used in some way does not necessarily mean that people who choose to use it in the less common way are wrong. There is a considerable body of evidence, from reputable sources, of staunch and stanch being used in their less common roles.

Some people will tell you that you should always keep these words apart, and if you’d like to do this you may find the following sentence of some assistance in helping you to remember the difference: "A staunch friend would help you stanch a bleeding thumb."

Alternatively, you may rely on the time-honored method of people-who-remember-things-poorly and use this limerick:

Tho’ neither stanch nor staunch must conform
To rigid semantical norm
Some editors will blanch,
When encountering stanch
If it’s used in adjective form

Did You Know?

Verb

The verb "stanch" has a lot in common with the adjective staunch, meaning "steadfast." Not only do both words derive from the Anglo-French word estancher (which has the same meaning as "stanch"), but the spelling "s-t-a-n-c-h" is sometimes used for the adjective, and the spelling "s-t-a-u-n-c-h" is sometimes used for the verb. Although both spelling variants have been in reputable use for centuries and both are perfectly standard for either the verb or adjective, "stanch" is the form used most often for the verb and "staunch" is the most common variant for the adjective.

Examples of stanch in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

Eric Stark hit the emergency alert button, clasped his right hand to his chest to stanch the bleeding, and with his left hand steered his 40-foot bus blindly in reverse. — David Gutman, The Seattle Times, "‘I’ve been shot, I’ve been shot, I’ve been shot’: How a wounded Metro bus driver steered his passengers to safety," 31 Mar. 2019 Exports of Swiss watches slumped, a crackdown on corruption in China stanched demand for luxury goods in an increasingly important market, and global economic growth was sluggish. — Elizabeth Paton And Chad Bray, New York Times, "Richemont, Doubling Down on Online Luxury, May Buy Yoox Net-a-Porter," 22 Jan. 2018 To stanch the red ink, Mr. Lampert has sold unprofitable stores and turned to financial engineering. — The Editorial Board, WSJ, "How Sears Lost Its Mojo," 12 Oct. 2018 Attempting to completely stanch the flow of painful memories can contribute to that mind-body disconnect, as well as anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. — Zahra Barnes, SELF, "What It's Like to Reclaim Your Sex Life After Sexual Assault," 4 Aug. 2018 To stanch losses, AB InBev has snapped up craft beer brands in the U.S. — Saabira Chaudhuri, WSJ, "AB InBev Slashes Dividend as Beer Remains Out of Favor," 25 Oct. 2018 With Clayton Kershaw, Kenta Maeda, Rich Hill and Hyun-Jin Ryu on the disabled list, the team called up Ferguson to stanch the bleeding. — Andy Mccullough, latimes.com, "Matt Kemp's offensive showing not enough in 11-9 Dodgers' loss to the Pirates," 7 June 2018 In the case of NAFTA, the president has tried to inject his demands for a border wall and stanching immigration flows into the debate. — Tory Newmyer, Washington Post, "The Finance 202: Trump is running out of time on NAFTA," 11 May 2018 Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner are planning to continue their divorce privately, attorneys confirmed, moving quickly to stanch rumors of reconciliation after the couple withdrew their case from court. — James Hohmann, Washington Post, "The Daily 202: These Trump nominees couldn’t get confirmed by the GOP Senate, but they’re still in government," 11 Jan. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'stanch.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.