afforestation

noun

"afforestation" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“afforestation” is uncommon English (frequency #83,953 among 35,202 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#83,953
frequency rank, English
35,202
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The act or process of creating a new forest where none had existed before, or reforestation of areas long deforested.

Key facts for afforestation
PropertyValue
Headwordafforestation
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Frequency rank#83,953
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “afforestation” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). afforestation lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

afforestation is uncommon English at frequency #83,953 among 35,202 “A” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The act or process of creating a new forest where none had existed before, or reforestation of areas long deforested.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for afforestation, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Medieval Latin afforestātiō, from afforestāt-, past participial stem of afforestō (“to convert into a forest”) (from Latin ad- + Late Latin forestis (“forest”) + -ō (suffix forming verbs)), + Latin -iō (suffix forming action nouns). By surface analysis… The correct English form is afforestation, spelled A-F-F-O-R-E-S-T-A-T-I-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    The act or process of creating a new forest where none had existed before, or reforestation of areas long deforested.

Etymology

From Medieval Latin afforestātiō, from afforestāt-, past participial stem of afforestō (“to convert into a forest”) (from Latin ad- + Late Latin forestis (“forest”) + -ō (suffix forming verbs)), + Latin -iō (suffix forming action nouns). By surface analysis, afforest + -ation.

Antonyms

This word in other languages

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 "afforestation"?
"afforestation" is spelled A-F-F-O-R-E-S-T-A-T-I-O-N.
What does "afforestation" mean?
As a noun, "afforestation" means: The act or process of creating a new forest where none had existed before, or reforestation of areas long deforested.
What is the origin of the word "afforestation"?
From Medieval Latin afforestātiō, from afforestāt-, past participial stem of afforestō (“to convert into a forest”) (from Latin ad- + Late Latin forestis (“forest”) + -ō (suffix forming verbs)), + Latin -iō (suffix forming action nouns). By surfac... 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.

Using “afforestation”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is A-F-F-O-R-E-S-T-A-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Other uncommon English words near this rank

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list