variant of stanch entry 1
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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
Synonyms
Examples of staunch in a Sentence
Isabel Blank, National Review, 25 Apr. 2024
For staunch partisans on either side of the aisle, the best intervention focused on highlighting the value of environmental purity and compliance with authority figures, like scientists or political and military leaders, as the reasons for taking climate action.
—TIME, 22 Apr. 2024
Since its founding in 2004, the company — which sought to bring stories that could spark change to a wide audience — has been a staunch supporter of documentaries focused on social and justice issues, funded by the largesse of a billionaire, ex-eBay president Jeff Skoll.
—Katie Kilkenny, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Apr. 2024
Díaz-Balart, a Cuban American who sits on the House subcommittee on appropriations that decides over the State Department budget, is a staunch supporter of sanctions against the Cuban government.
—Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald, 18 Apr. 2024
Alyson Stoner, known for her roles in Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Camp Rock, has been a staunch advocate for child actors and exposes the dark realities of becoming a young starlet in her Dear Hollywood podcast.
—Kalia Richardson, Rolling Stone, 17 Apr. 2024
Miller is a staunch free marketeer who believes that the exorbitant resale prices simply reflect how much consumers are willing to pay for them and not a failing in his platform.
—Ryan Hogg, Fortune Europe, 15 Apr. 2024
At the other end of the spectrum are lawmakers like Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., one of Congress’s staunchest critics of CIA warrantless surveillance programs.
—USA TODAY, 4 Apr. 2024
Of the five Black members on the city council at the time, Mayor Quinton Lucas was alone in voting for his hiring and has been a staunch supporter ever since.
—Mike Hendricks, Kansas City Star, 10 Apr. 2024
TIME, 2 Apr. 2024
On Monday, amid enormous pressure to do something to staunch the violence in Port-au-Prince, Henry did announce his resignation.
—Caitlin Stephen Hu, CNN, 15 Mar. 2024
In an effort to staunch the exodus of home insurers fleeing the state, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara on Thursday unveiled a proposal for letting those insurers use computer models of possible future catastrophes to justify rate increases.
—John Woolfolk, The Mercury News, 14 Mar. 2024
Three cinematic luminaries — Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Martin Scorsese — met with WBD CEO David Zaslav to try to staunch the bleeding.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 7 Aug. 2023
On Monday, amid enormous pressure to staunch the violence, Henry stepped down.
—Ray Sanchez, CNN, 17 Mar. 2024
As Marie falls to the floor, hyperventilating, her father rushes in, trying to staunch his wife's bleeding wound.
—Alex Raiman, EW.com, 29 Sep. 2023
The Nvidia chief has previously warned that an escalation in US sanctions, designed to staunch the flow of AI training chips to China, could drive local firms to develop their own alternatives.
—Jane Lanhee Lee, Fortune, 25 Jan. 2024
His successor, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, has struggled to staunch the violence.
—Rosa Flores, CNN, 6 Sep. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'staunch.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Articles Related to staunch
Dictionary Entries Near staunch
Cite this Entry
“Staunch.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/staunch. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.
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