abandon
aban·don/əˈbæn.dən/verb, noun
abandon is spelled A-B-A-N-D-O-N, 2 syllables: aban·don. The wrong spelling people search most is abondon: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 35 of all searches for the word. Abandon is a verb meaning “To give up or relinquish control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions”.
How many letters and syllables are in abandon?
| Letters | 7: A-B-A-N-D-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: aban·don |
| In writing | 10 times per million words; the 6,884th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, abondon, about 40 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell abandon?
Abandon is spelled A-B-A-N-D-O-N. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 18 of the searches for abandon in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is abandon?
Abandon appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 6,884th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce abandon?
- US /əˈbæn.dən/
- British /əˈban.dən/
- /əˈbɛn.dən/
Abandon has 2 syllables, split aban·don in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-abandon.ogg, En-ca-abandon.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with abandon?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as abandon from its last stressed vowel (/ændən/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of abandon
- abandons present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- abandoning participle, present
- abandoned participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does abandon mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To give up or relinquish control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions.
- 2
To desist in doing, practicing, following, holding, or adhering to; to turn away from; to permit to lapse; to renounce; to discontinue.
- 3
To leave behind; to desert, as in a ship, a position, or a person, typically in response to overwhelming odds or impending dangers; to forsake, in spite of a duty or responsibility.
Many baby girls have been abandoned on the streets of Beijing.
- 4
obsoleteTo subdue; to take control of.
- 5
obsoleteTo cast out; to banish; to expel; to reject.
- 6
To no longer exercise a right, title, or interest, especially with no interest of reclaiming it again; to yield; to relinquish.
I hereby abandon my position as manager.
- 7
To surrender to the insurer (an insured item), so as to claim a total loss.
noun
- 1
A yielding to natural impulses or inhibitions; freedom from artificial constraint, with loss of appreciation of consequences. (Now especially in the phrase with abandon.)
with gay abandon, with wild abandon, with reckless abandon
- 2
obsoleteAbandonment; relinquishment.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Abandon in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | abandonner |
| German | aufgeben, verlassen , zurücklassen, aussetzen , verbannen , Hingabe |
| Portuguese | abandonar, desistir, largar mão , expulsar , abandono , renunciar |
| Spanish | renunciar, suspender , abandonar , expulsar , desenfreno |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.