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apposition

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

10 characters

Language

English

word origin

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "apposition", 10-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "apposition" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "apposition" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

apposition is aEnglishnoun. It means: 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. Pronounced /ˌæpəˈzɪʃn̩/.

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Key facts for apposition
PropertyValue
Headwordapposition
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˌæpəˈzɪʃn̩/
Letters10
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

apposition is not present in the top-100,000 ranked English corpus, typical for technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary.

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for apposition is 10 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌæpəˈzɪʃn̩/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for apposition in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English apposicioun, from Middle French apposition, from Latin appositiō, past participle of appōnere (“to put near”). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is apposition, spelled A-P-P-O-S-I-T-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    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.
  2. 2
    The relationship between such nouns or noun phrases.
  3. 3
    The quality of being side by side, apposed instead of opposed, next to each other.
  4. 4
    A placing of two things side by side, or the fitting together of two things.
  5. 5
    The growth of successive layers of a cell wall.
  6. 6
    Appositio, the addition of an element not syntactically required.
  7. 7
    A public disputation by scholars.
  8. 8
    A (now purely ceremonial) speech day at St Paul's School, London.

Etymology

From Middle English apposicioun, from Middle French apposition, from Latin appositiō, past participle of appōnere (“to put near”).

This word in other languages

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "apposition"?
"apposition" is spelled A-P-P-O-S-I-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is /ˌæpəˈzɪʃn̩/.
What does "apposition" mean?
As a noun, "apposition" means: 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.
How do you pronounce "apposition"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "apposition" is /ˌæpəˈzɪʃn̩/. 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 "apposition"?
From Middle English apposicioun, from Middle French apposition, from Latin appositiō, past participle of appōnere (“to put near”). 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.

Nearby English words

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.