cohesion
/kəʊˈhiː.ʒən/
"cohesion" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cohesion” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #20,065 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #20,065
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - State of cohering, or of working together.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cohesion |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kəʊˈhiː.ʒən/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #20,065 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cohesion” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cohesion is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kəʊˈhiː.ʒən/. Corpus data places it at rank #20,065 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for cohesion, with forms such as "ccohesion", "choesion", and "coehsion". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "cohesive", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Attested from the late 17th century, borrowed from French cohésion, from Latin cohaesiō, cohaesiōnem. The correct English form is cohesion, spelled C-O-H-E-S-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1State of cohering, or of working together.
- 2Various intermolecular forces that hold solids and liquids together.
- 3Growing together of normally distinct parts of a plant.
- 4Degree to which functionally related elements in a system belong together.
- 5Grammatical or lexical relationship between different parts of the same text.
Etymology
Attested from the late 17th century, borrowed from French cohésion, from Latin cohaesiō, cohaesiōnem.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccohesion,choesion,coehsion,coheison,cohesino,cohesionn,cohesoin,cohession,cohetion,cohhesion,cohseion,ochesion
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cohesion - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "cohesion"?
What does "cohesion" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "cohesion"?
How do you pronounce "cohesion"?
What is the origin of the word "cohesion"?
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Using “cohesion”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-H-E-S-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kəʊˈhiː.ʒən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cohesive” - see the side-by-side comparison. cohesion vs cohesive
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.