Stealth

How to spell stealth

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce stealth

What does stealth mean?

1. nounCautious, quiet movement or behaviour designed to avoid being noticed.
2. adjectiveDesigned to avoid detection, especially by radar or other sensors.

Stealth in a sentence

• noun

  The cat crossed the room with practised stealth.

• adjective

  The air force unveiled a new stealth bomber at the base.

• noun

  The burglar relied on stealth to slip past the alarm.

• adjective

  Engineers coated the aircraft for a true stealth profile.

Where does stealth come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Stealth descends from the Old English verb stelan, meaning 'to steal' or 'to take secretly', the same ancestor that gives us the modern verb 'steal'. The noun was formed by adding the native suffix -th, which turns verbs and adjectives into nouns of state or quality, much as 'warm' becomes 'warmth' and 'grow' becomes 'growth'. In Middle English the word originally meant the act of stealing or thieving itself, and only later did its sense soften into the general idea of acting quietly and without being noticed. By the time it reached its modern meaning it described any cautious, secret movement, not just theft. The kinship with 'steal' is the key to the spelling: it is steal plus th, so the 'ea' belongs there just as it does in the verb, and the word ends in a single soft 'th'.

How the word is built

• steal- (from Old English stelan: to steal, move secretly)
• -th (noun-forming suffix indicating a state or quality)