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PlainSpell

cancel

can·cel/ˈkæn.sl̩/verb, noun

cancel is spelled C-A-N-C-E-L, 2 syllables: can·cel. The wrong spelling people search most is cancell: about 360 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 67 of all searches for the word. Cancel is a verb meaning “To cross out something with lines etc”.

How many letters and syllables are in cancel?

Letters6: C-A-N-C-E-L
Syllables2: can·cel
In writing15 times per million words; the 5,309th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, cancell, about 360 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell cancel?

Cancel is spelled C-A-N-C-E-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 67 of the searches for cancel in either form.

cancelthe right spelling23,710 searches a month
cancellan extra l360 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is cancel?

Cancel appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,309th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce cancel?

  • /ˈkæn.sl̩/
  • [ˈkɛən.sl̩ ~ ˈkeən.sl̩]

Cancel has 2 syllables, split can·cel in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-cancel.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with cancel

Also written: canceled.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of cancel

  • cancels present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • canceling US, participle, present
  • cancelling UK, participle, present
  • canceled US, participle, past
  • cancelled UK, participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does cancel mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To cross out something with lines etc.

  2. 2

    To invalidate or annul something.

    He cancelled his order on their website.

  3. 3

    To mark something (such as a used postage stamp) so that it cannot be reused.

    This machine cancels the letters that have a valid zip code.

  4. 4

    To offset or equalize something.

    The corrective feedback mechanism cancels out the noise.

  5. 5

    To remove a common factor from both the numerator and denominator of a fraction, or from both sides of an equation.

  6. 6

    To stop production of a programme.

  7. 7

    datedTo suppress or omit; to strike out, as matter in type.

  8. 8

    obsoleteTo shut out, as with a railing or with latticework; to exclude.

noun

  1. 1

    USA cancellation.

  2. 2

    USA control message posted to Usenet that serves to cancel a previously posted message.

  3. 3

    obsoleteAn enclosure; a boundary; a limit.

  4. 4

    The suppression on striking out of matter in type, or of a printed page or pages.

  5. 5

    The page thus suppressed.

  6. 6

    The page that replaces it.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate cancel?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of cancel: cnx.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Cancel in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germanausstreichen, durchstreichen, kanzellieren (cross out), annullieren, streichen, stornieren (invalidate, annul)
Portugueseriscar (cross out), anular, invalidar, cancelar (invalidate, annul), neutralizar (offset, equalize), eliminar (remove a common factor)
Spanishtachar (cross out), cancelar, funar (invalidate, annul), funa (cancellation)
Frenchannuler, résilier, se désabonner, mettre fin, décommander (invalidate, annul), oblitérer (mark to prevent reuse)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does cancel come from?

From Middle English cancellen, from Anglo-Norman canceler (“to cross out with lines”) (modern French chanceler (“to stagger, sway”)), from Old French canceler, from Latin cancellō (“to make resemble a lattice”), from cancellus (“a railing or lattice”), diminutive of cancer (“a lattice”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after cancel