abscess
/ˈæbsɛs/noun, verb
abscess is spelled A-B-S-C-E-S-S. The wrong spelling people search most is abcess: about 3,210 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Abscess is a noun meaning “A cavity caused by tissue destruction, usually because of infection, filled with pus and surrounded by…”. The plural of abscess is abscesses.
How many letters and syllables are in abscess?
| Letters | 7: A-B-S-C-E-S-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 36,565th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, abcess, about 3,210 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 abscess?
Abscess is spelled A-B-S-C-E-S-S. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for abscess 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 abscess?
Abscess appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,565th 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 abscess?
- US /ˈæbsɛs/
- US /ˈæbsɪs/
Abscess has 2 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-uk-abscess.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of abscess
- abscesses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- abscessing participle, present
- abscessed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does abscess mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A cavity caused by tissue destruction, usually because of infection, filled with pus and surrounded by inflamed tissue.
verb
- 1
To form a pus-filled cavity, typically from an infection.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Abscess in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | abcès , abcéder |
| German | Abszess, Eiterbeule |
| Portuguese | abscesso, abcesso , absceder |
| Spanish | absceso, flemón , absceder |
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 abscess come from?
Borrowed from Latin abscessus (“a going away; gathering of humors, abscess”), from abscēdō (“go away, depart”), from abs (“away from”) + cēdō (“go”). See cede.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).