abortion
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
8 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "abortion", 8-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 "abortion" 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 "abortion" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
abortion is aEnglishnoun. It means: The expulsion from the womb of a foetus or embryo before it is fully developed, with loss of the foetus. Pronounced /əˈbɔɹ.ʃn̩/. It ranks #4,733 in English word frequency. Often confused with adoption and abortive.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | abortion |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əˈbɔɹ.ʃn̩/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #4,733 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for abortion is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əˈbɔɹ.ʃn̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,733 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 12 documented wrong-spelling variants for abortion, with forms such as "abbortion", "aboriton", and "aborrtion". 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 also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "adoption", "abortive", "adoration", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin abortiōnem (“miscarriage, abortion”), from aborior (“to miscarry”). Equivalent to abort + -ion. Displaced native Old English ǣwyrp (literally “throwing out, rejection”). 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 abortion, spelled A-B-O-R-T-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The expulsion from the womb of a foetus or embryo before it is fully developed, with loss of the foetus.
- 2The expulsion from the womb of a foetus or embryo before it is fully developed, with loss of the foetus.
- 3An aborted foetus; an abortus.
- 4A misshapen person or thing; a monstrosity.
- 5Failure or abandonment of a project, promise, goal etc.
- 6Arrest of development of any organ, so that it remains an imperfect formation or is absorbed.
- 7The cessation of an illness or disease at a very early stage.
Etymology
From Latin abortiōnem (“miscarriage, abortion”), from aborior (“to miscarry”). Equivalent to abort + -ion. Displaced native Old English ǣwyrp (literally “throwing out, rejection”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: abbortion,aboriton,aborrtion,aborsion,abortino,abortionn,abortoin,aborttion,abotrion,abrotion,aobrtion,baortion
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for abortion
Misspelling Variants of "abortion"
Frequency rank: #4,733 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index: