I agree with you on the whitespace, but I think that, while it may increase typing, spelling out your joins is much cleaner and easier to read (if the db that you are using support it).

SELECT words.id, words.definition
FROM stock 
  JOIN languages ON (stock.languageID = languages.id)
  JOIN stockmatch ON (stockmatch.stockID = stocks.id)
  JOIN words ON (stockmatch.wordID = words.word_id)
  JOIN types ON (words.typeID = types.id)
WHERE stock.word = :stock_word
  AND language.name = :language_name
  AND type.name = :type_name
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And if you are joining two tables on a column that has the same name in both tables you can:

SELECT * FROM table_one JOIN table_two USING (join_column)
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