Nonstop

How to spell nonstop

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce nonstop

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does nonstop mean?

1. adjectiveContinuing without any pause or interruption.
2. adverbWithout stopping or pausing at any point.

Nonstop in a sentence

• adjective

  They booked a nonstop flight from London to Tokyo to save time.

• adverb

  The train runs nonstop between the two main stations.

• adjective

  The call centre handles a nonstop stream of enquiries all day.

• adverb

  She worked nonstop for twelve hours to finish the report.

Where does nonstop come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a modern English compound built from two older pieces. The first element, the prefix 'non-', comes from Latin, where 'non' simply meant 'not', and it has long been a productive way to negate an English word. The second element, 'stop', is native and Germanic, descending from Old English 'stoppian', which originally carried the sense of plugging up or blocking an opening before it broadened to mean halting movement. The two were joined in the early twentieth century, largely in the world of travel and aviation, to describe a journey made without pausing. Because the prefix attaches cleanly with no doubled letter and no hyphen in standard modern use, the only real spelling decision is remembering it is a single closed-up word rather than 'non-stop' or 'non stop'.

How the word is built

• non- (not, prefix of negation)
• stop (the verb/noun for halting)