Stop word
word filtered out at natural language processing
Stop words are the words in a stop list (or stoplist or negative dictionary) which are filtered out ("stopped") before or after processing of natural language data (i.e. text) because they are deemed to have little semantic value or are otherwise insignificant for the task at hand. There is no single universal list of stop words used by all natural language processing (NLP) tools, nor any agreed upon rules for identifying stop words, and indeed not all tools even use such a list. Therefore, any group of words can be chosen as the stop words for a given purpose. The "general trend in [information retrieval] systems over time has been from standard use of quite large stop lists (200–300 terms) to very small stop lists (7–12 terms) to no stop list whatsoever".
History of stop words
A predecessor concept was used in creating some concordances. For example, the first Hebrew concordance, Isaac Nathan ben Kalonymus's Me’ir Nativ, contained a one-page list of unindexed words, with nonsubstantive prepositions and conjunctions which are similar to common modern stop words.
Hans Peter Luhn, one of the pioneers in information retrieval, is credited with coining the phrase and using the concept when introducing his Key Word in Context automatic indexing process. The phrase "stop word", which is not in Luhn's 1959 presentation, and the associated terms "stop list" and "stoplist" appear in the literature shortly afterward.
Although it is commonly assumed that stop lists include only the most frequent words in a language, it was C.J. Van Rijsbergen who proposed the first standardized list which was not based on word frequency information.
“Stop word” enters the record as word filtered out at natural language processing. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Stop, word and filtered can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Stop word” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Stop, word and filtered provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 12, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q80735. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1959.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Stop word”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Stop word primary sources, Stop word archive and Stop research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Stop word”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Stop word” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.