addition
ad·di·tion/əˈdɪʃ.ən/noun
addition is spelled A-D-D-I-T-I-O-N, 3 syllables: ad·di·tion. The wrong spelling people search most is adition: about 80 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 43 of all searches for the word. Addition is a noun meaning “The act of adding anything”. The plural of addition is additions.
How many letters and syllables are in addition?
| Letters | 8: A-D-D-I-T-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: ad·di·tion |
| In writing | 102 times per million words; the 1,048th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 3; the most searched, adition, about 80 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 addition?
Addition is spelled A-D-D-I-T-I-O-N. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 17 of the searches for addition 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 addition?
Addition appears 102 times per million words in written English, the 1,048th 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 addition?
- /əˈdɪʃ.ən/
Addition has 3 syllables, split ad·di·tion in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-addition.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with addition
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of addition
- additions plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does addition mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of adding anything.
The addition of five more items to the agenda will make the meeting unbearably long.
- 2
Anything that is added.
- 3
The arithmetic operation of adding.
- 4
A dot at the right side of a note as an indication that its sound is to be lengthened one half.
- 5
A title annexed to a person's name to identify him or her more precisely.
- 6
Something added to a coat of arms, as a mark of honour.
- 7
an organic reaction where two or more molecules combine to form a larger one (the adduct).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate addition?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of addition: addn, addn..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Addition in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | addition , ajout |
| German | Zufügung, Hinzufügung , Zusatz , Addition , Summant |
| Portuguese | adição , acréscimo , soma |
| Spanish | adición, añadidura , aditamento, añadido |
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 addition come from?
Sense of “what is added” dates from 14th century, from Middle English addicioun, addition, from Old French adition, from Latin additiōnem, accusative singular of additiō, from addō (“add, put”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).