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abominable

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

10 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "abominable", 10-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "abominable" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "abominable" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

abominable is anEnglishadj. It means: Worthy of, or causing, abhorrence, as a thing of evil omen; odious in the utmost degree; very hateful; detestable; loathsome; execrable. Pronounced /əˈbɑm.ə.nə.bl̩/.

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Key facts for abominable
PropertyValue
Headwordabominable
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdj
IPA/əˈbɑm.ə.nə.bl̩/
Letters10
Frequency rank#34,763
Misspellings tracked15
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of abominable in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for abominable is 10 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈbɑm.ə.nə.bl̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #34,763 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 15 documented wrong-spelling variants for abominable, with forms such as "abbominable", "abmoinable", and "aboimnable". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English abhomynable, from Old French abominable, from Late Latin abōminābilis (“deserving abhorrence”), from abōminor (“abhor, deprecate as an ill omen”), from ab (“from, away from”) + ōminor (“forebode, predict, presage”), from ōmen (“sign, tok… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is abominable, spelled A-B-O-M-I-N-A-B-L-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Worthy of, or causing, abhorrence, as a thing of evil omen; odious in the utmost degree; very hateful; detestable; loathsome; execrable.
  2. 2
    Excessive, large (used as an intensifier).
  3. 3
    Very bad or inferior.
  4. 4
    Disagreeable or unpleasant.

Etymology

From Middle English abhomynable, from Old French abominable, from Late Latin abōminābilis (“deserving abhorrence”), from abōminor (“abhor, deprecate as an ill omen”), from ab (“from, away from”) + ōminor (“forebode, predict, presage”), from ōmen (“sign, token, omen”). Formerly erroneously folk-etymologized as deriving from Latin ab- + homo, literally "away from humankind," and therefore spelled abhominable, abhominal (Hence, Shakespeare puns on this when Hamlet speaks of incompetent actors that "imitate humanity abominably.")

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: abbominable,abmoinable,aboimnable,abomianble,abominabble,abominabel,abominablle,abominalbe,abominbale,abominible,abominnable,abomminable,abomniable,aobminable,baominable

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for abominable

Misspelling Variants of "abominable"

abbominable11abmoinable10aboimnable10abomianble10abominabble11abominabel10abominablle11abominalbe10
Misspelling Variants of "abominable"

Frequency rank: #34,763 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "abominable"?
"abominable" is spelled A-B-O-M-I-N-A-B-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is /əˈbɑm.ə.nə.bl̩/.
What does "abominable" mean?
As an adj, "abominable" means: Worthy of, or causing, abhorrence, as a thing of evil omen; odious in the utmost degree; very hateful; detestable; loathsome; execrable.
What are common misspellings of "abominable"?
Common misspellings include "abbominable", "abmoinable", "aboimnable", "abomianble", "abominabble". The correct spelling is "abominable".
How do you pronounce "abominable"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "abominable" is /əˈbɑm.ə.nə.bl̩/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "abominable"?
From Middle English abhomynable, from Old French abominable, from Late Latin abōminābilis (“deserving abhorrence”), from abōminor (“abhor, deprecate as an ill omen”), from ab (“from, away from”) + ōminor (“forebode, predict, presage”), from ōmen (... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.