absence
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "absence", 7-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 "absence" 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 "absence" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
absence is aEnglishnoun. It means: A state of being away or withdrawn from a place or from companionship Pronounced /ˈæb.s(ə)n̩s/. It ranks #3,996 in English word frequency. Often confused with absent and absentee.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | absence |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈæb.s(ə)n̩s/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #3,996 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for absence is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈæb.s(ə)n̩s/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,996 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 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for absence, with forms such as "abbsence", "abesnce", and "absance". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "absent", "absentee", "ambience", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó Proto-Italic *ap Latin abder. Latin ab- Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésmi Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- Proto-Indo-European *bʰúHt Proto-Italic *som~*ezom Latin sum Latin absum Latin absēns Proto-I… 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 absence, spelled A-B-S-E-N-C-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A state of being away or withdrawn from a place or from companionship
- 2The period of someone being away.
- 3Failure to be present where one is expected, wanted, or needed; nonattendance; deficiency.
- 4Lack; deficiency; non-existence.
- 5Inattention to things present; abstraction (of mind).
- 6Temporary loss or disruption of consciousness, with sudden onset and recovery, and common in epilepsy.
- 7Lack of contact between blades.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó Proto-Italic *ap Latin abder. Latin ab- Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésmi Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- Proto-Indo-European *bʰúHt Proto-Italic *som~*ezom Latin sum Latin absum Latin absēns Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin absentiader. Old French absencebor. Middle English absence English absence From Middle English absence, from Old French absence, ausence, from Latin absentia, from absēns (“absent”), present active participle of absum (“to be away or absent”), from ab (“from, away from”) + sum (“to be”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: abbsence,abesnce,absance,absecne,absencce,absenec,absennce,absnece,abssence,asbence,basence
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for absence
Misspelling Variants of "absence"
Frequency rank: #3,996 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter A in our English index: