aberration
/ˌæb.əˈɹeɪ.ʃn̩/noun
aberration is spelled A-B-E-R-R-A-T-I-O-N. The wrong spelling people search most is aberation: about 160 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 14 of all searches for the word. Aberration is a noun meaning “The act of wandering; deviation from truth, moral rectitude; abnormal; divergence from the straight, correct…”. The plural of aberration is aberrations.
How many letters and syllables are in aberration?
| Letters | 10: A-B-E-R-R-A-T-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 29,649th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, aberation, about 160 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 aberration?
Aberration is spelled A-B-E-R-R-A-T-I-O-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 14 of the searches for aberration 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 aberration?
Aberration appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,649th 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 aberration?
- US /ˌæb.əˈɹeɪ.ʃn̩/
Aberration has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-aberration.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with aberration?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as aberration from its last stressed vowel (/eɪʃn/):
- information
- formation
- preparation
- presentation
- relation
- identification
- observation
- variation
- obligation
- simulation
- notification
- calculation
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 aberration
- aberrations plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does aberration mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of wandering; deviation from truth, moral rectitude; abnormal; divergence from the straight, correct, proper, normal, or from the natural state.
the aberration of youth
- 2
The convergence to different foci, by a lens or mirror, of rays of light emanating from one and the same point, or the deviation of such rays from a single focus; a defect in a focusing mechanism that prevents the intended focal point.
- 3
A small periodical change of the apparent positions of the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer.
- 4
The tendency of light rays to preferentially strike the leading face of a moving object (the effect underlying the above phenomenon).
- 5
A partial alienation of reason.
- 6
Any creature with supernatural powers not found in the organized classes of beings in a given setting.
Only by submitting to the aberration could the human traders travel safely through the territory of Zularn.
- 7
A mental disorder, especially one of a minor or temporary character.
- 8
Atypical development or structure; deviation from the normal type; an aberrant organ.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Aberration in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | anomalie, anormalité , aberration |
| German | Aberration, Abartigkeit, Abweichung, Verirrung |
| Portuguese | aberração |
| Spanish | aberración , alienación, locura |
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.
Where does aberration come from?
A learned borrowing from Latin aberrātiō(n) (“relief, diversion”), first attested in 1594, from aberrō (“wander away, go astray”), from ab (“away”) + errō (“wander”). Compare French aberration. By surface analysis, aberrat(e) + -ion.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).