Definition

A common word that is often ignored in searches because it does not add significant meaning, like 'and', 'the', or 'is'.

Example

In natural language processing, stopwords are usually removed from text to focus on more meaningful words.

Conversation

Have you ever heard of the term stopword?

Yeah, I think it's a word that doesn't really add much meaning, right?

Exactly! It's often ignored in searches because it's so common.

That makes sense — words like 'the' or 'and' are everywhere.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Root Explanation

Stopword → The word is formed from "stop" (from Old English *stoppian*, meaning to close or block) and "word" (from Old English *word*, meaning a unit of language). A stopword refers to a word that is often filtered out in processing because it is deemed unimportant or does not add significant meaning.

Memory Tip

Think of a 'stop' as something that 'blocks' or 'closes' off certain words, which helps you remember that a stopword is a word that is often ignored in language processing.

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