affection

/əˈfɛk.ʃən/

//əˈfɛk.ʃən// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"affection" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“affection” has 12 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #8,003. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#8,003
frequency rank, English
3,931
“A” headwords
12
tracked misspellings
4
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The act of affecting or acting upon.

Corpus desk

Index EN-affection · affection · English

affection · rank #8,003 · 12 variants · 4 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #8,003
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
  • VAR-MID 12 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,931
  • PHOTO-FINISH admin

Nearest frequency peer: admin (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “affection”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “affection” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

affection vs affective
78% similar
affection vs affliction
80% similar
affection vs affections
90% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for affection
PropertyValue
Headwordaffection
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/əˈfɛk.ʃən/
Letters9
Frequency rank#8,003
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “affection”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).affectionlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “admin” (#8,002), “airplane” (#8,004), “absorbed” (#8,001). Among 3,931 “A” headwords, “affection” is #8,003. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 12 spelling variants around affection (IPA /əˈfɛk.ʃən/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #8,003 among 3,931 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for affection, with forms such as "afection", "afefction", and "affcetion". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "affective", "affliction", "affections", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English affection, affeccion, affeccioun, from Old French affection, from Latin affectiōnem, from affectiō; equivalent to affect + -ion. The correct English form is affection, spelled A-F-F-E-C-T-I-O-N.

Definition

  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.
  6. 6
    A disease; a morbid symptom; a malady.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how affection appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. A Porism is a proposition in which it is proposed to demonstrate that some one thing, or more things than one, are given, to which, as also to each of innumerable other things, not given indeed, but which have the same relation to those which are given, it is to be shewn that there belongs some common affection described in the proposition.
  2. Our affections for wild animals are distributed very unevenly. Take insects.

Etymology

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

Synonyms

attachmentfondnesskindnesslovepassiontenderness

This word in other languages

afecto(Español)Zuneigung(Deutsch)afeição(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • afection
  • afefction
  • affcetion
  • affecction
  • affeciton
  • affecsion
  • affectino
  • affectionn
  • affectoin
  • affecttion
  • affetcion
  • fafection

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of affection - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

afection1afefction2affcetion2affecction1affeciton2affecsion1affectino2affectionn1
Edit distance from "affection"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "affection"?
"affection" is spelled A-F-F-E-C-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is /əˈfɛk.ʃən/.
What does "affection" mean?
As a noun, "affection" means: The act of affecting or acting upon.
What words are commonly confused with "affection"?
"affection" is commonly confused with "affective", "affliction", "affections". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "affection"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "affection" is /əˈfɛk.ʃən/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "affection"?
From Middle English affection, affeccion, affeccioun, from Old French affection, from Latin affectiōnem, from affectiō; equivalent to affect + -ion. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "affection", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Venezuela#7,996treasurer#7,992translate#7,991competent#8,018

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).

absorbed12 variantsVladimir12 variantsbiblical12 variantstriangle12 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list