ability
/əˈbɪl.ə.ti/noun
ability is spelled A-B-I-L-I-T-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is abilty: about 50 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 56 of all searches for the word. Ability is a noun meaning “The quality or state of being able; capacity to do or of doing something; having the necessary power”. The plural of ability is abilities.
How many letters and syllables are in ability?
| Letters | 7: A-B-I-L-I-T-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 91 times per million words; the 1,167th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, abilty, about 50 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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).
How do you spell ability?
Ability is spelled A-B-I-L-I-T-Y. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 35 of the searches for ability 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 ability?
Ability appears 91 times per million words in written English, the 1,167th 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 ability?
- /əˈbɪl.ə.ti/
- /əˈbɪl.ɪ.ti/
Ability 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-ability.ogg, En-ca-ability.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of ability
- abilities plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ability mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
obsoleteSuitableness.
- 2
The quality or state of being able; capacity to do or of doing something; having the necessary power.
This phone has the ability to have its software upgraded wirelessly.
- 3
The legal wherewithal to act.
- 4
Physical power.
- 5
archaicFinancial ability.
- 6
A unique power of the mind; a faculty.
- 7
A skill or competence in doing; mental power; talent; aptitude.
a mixed-ability class
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ability in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | capacité, pouvoir, habileté , -abilité |
| German | Fähigkeit , -barkeit |
| Portuguese | habilidade, capacidade , -abilidade , destreza, perícia |
| Spanish | habilidad, capacidad |
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 ability come from?
First attested in the 1300s. From Middle English abilite (“suitability, aptitude, ability”), from Old French ableté, from Latin habilitās (“aptness, ability”), from habilis (“apt, fit, skillful, able”); equivalent to able + -ity.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).