agglutination

/əˌɡluːtɪˈneɪ.ʃən/

//əˌɡluːtɪˈneɪ.ʃən// noun

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

The verdict

“agglutination” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
13
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The act of uniting by glue or other tenacious substance; the state of being thus united; adhesion of parts.

Corpus desk

Index EN-agglutination · agglutination · English

agglutination · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "A" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for agglutination
PropertyValue
Headwordagglutination
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/əˌɡluːtɪˈneɪ.ʃən/
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “agglutination” in English

agglutinationsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

agglutination is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /əˌɡluːtɪˈneɪ.ʃən/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for agglutination, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: Multiple origins. The oldest usage, in relation to tissues adhering or healing in medical contexts, appears in the 16th century, from French agglutination. The linguistic sense derived from this usage during the early 19th century. The sense of gluing or ce… The correct English form is agglutination, spelled A-G-G-L-U-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    The act of uniting by glue or other tenacious substance; the state of being thus united; adhesion of parts.
  2. 2
    Combination in which root words are united with little or no change of form or loss of meaning. See agglutinative.
  3. 3
    The clumping together of red blood cells or bacteria, usually in response to a particular antibody.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. It may resemble the factor 5 in Salmonella, a heat-labile determinant on the endotoxin molecule which, because of its superficial location, blocks the agglutination reaction of the deeper heat-stable O antigens in the same way as do the Vi and K antigens.

Etymology

Multiple origins. The oldest usage, in relation to tissues adhering or healing in medical contexts, appears in the 16th century, from French agglutination. The linguistic sense derived from this usage during the early 19th century. The sense of gluing or cementing objects together in other contexts is from New Latin agglutinatio, from Latin agglūtinō (“glue; fasten to”) + -iō (a suffix used to form nouns). Compare Spanish aglutinación (“uniting; (linguistic) agglutination”), French agglutiner (“to paste together”, verb), and German Agglutination (“(linguistic) agglutination”) and Agglutinierung (“(biological) adhering, clumping”).

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "agglutination"?
"agglutination" is spelled A-G-G-L-U-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is /əˌɡluːtɪˈneɪ.ʃən/.
What does "agglutination" mean?
As a noun, "agglutination" means: The act of uniting by glue or other tenacious substance; the state of being thus united; adhesion of parts.
How do you pronounce "agglutination"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "agglutination" is /əˌɡluːtɪˈneɪ.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 "agglutination"?
Multiple origins. The oldest usage, in relation to tissues adhering or healing in medical contexts, appears in the 16th century, from French agglutination. The linguistic sense derived from this usage during the early 19th century. The sense of gl... 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list