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PlainSpell

affection

af·fec·tion/əˈfɛk.ʃən/noun

affection is spelled A-F-F-E-C-T-I-O-N: 9 letters and 3 syllables (af·fec·tion). It appears 8.3 times per million words in written English, the 8,036th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, affection means “The act of affecting or acting upon” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of affection is affections.

How many letters and syllables are in affection?

Letters9: A-F-F-E-C-T-I-O-N
Syllables3: af·fec·tion
In writing8.3 times per million words; the 8,036th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in 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).

How common is affection?

Affection appears 8.3 times per million words in written English, the 8,036th 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 affection?

  • /əˈfɛk.ʃən/
  • /əˈfɛk.t͡ʃən/

Affection has 3 syllables, split af·fec·tion in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-affection.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of affection

  • affections plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • affectioning participle, present
  • affectioned participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does affection mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The act of affecting or acting upon.

  2. 2

    The state of being affected, especially: a change in, or alteration of, the emotional state of a person or other animal, caused by a subjective affect (a subjective feeling or emotion), which arises in response to a stimulus which may result from either thought or perception.

  3. 3

    An attribute; a quality or property; a condition.

  4. 4

    An emotion; a feeling or natural impulse acting upon and swaying the mind.

  5. 5

    A feeling of love or strong attachment; a feeling of enjoyable and comforting fondness.

    I have a lot of affection for my little sister.

  6. 6

    archaicA disease; a morbid symptom; a malady.

verb

  1. 1

    archaicTo feel affection for.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Affection in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Portugueseafetação (act of affecting), afeição (any emotion), afeto (feeling of love or strong attachment), afecção ((archaic in English) medicine: morbid symptom)
Spanishafecto, afección (act of affecting), cariño, apego (feeling of love or strong attachment)
GermanZuneigung (any emotion), Rührung (feeling of love or strong attachment)

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 affection come from?

From Middle English affection, affeccion, affeccioun, from Old French affection, from Latin affectiōnem, from affectiō; equivalent to affect + -ion.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after affection