apposition
/ˌæpəˈzɪʃn̩/
"apposition" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“apposition” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A construction in which one noun or noun phrase is placed with another as an explanatory equivalent, both of them having the same syntactic function in the sentence.
Corpus desk
Index EN-apposition · apposition · English
apposition · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-5 5 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | apposition |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌæpəˈzɪʃn̩/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “apposition” in English
Rare enough to double-check
apposition is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌæpəˈzɪʃn̩/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 8 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for apposition in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English apposicioun, from Middle French apposition, from Latin appositiō, past participle of appōnere (“to put near”). The correct English form is apposition, spelled A-P-P-O-S-I-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1A construction in which one noun or noun phrase is placed with another as an explanatory equivalent, both of them having the same syntactic function in the sentence.
- 2The relationship between such nouns or noun phrases.
- 3The quality of being side by side, apposed instead of opposed, next to each other.
- 4A placing of two things side by side, or the fitting together of two things.
- 5The growth of successive layers of a cell wall.
- 6Appositio, the addition of an element not syntactically required.
- 7A public disputation by scholars.
- 8A (now purely ceremonial) speech day at St Paul's School, London.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how apposition appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The apposition in the title has been read as indicating that ‘Hobson-Jobson’ is equivalent to ‘colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases’.
Etymology
From Middle English apposicioun, from Middle French apposition, from Latin appositiō, past participle of appōnere (“to put near”).
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.