collation
/kəˈleɪʃən/
"collation" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“collation” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #46,383 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #46,383
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Bringing 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 | collation |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kəˈleɪʃən/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #46,383 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “collation” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for collation is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kəˈleɪʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #46,383 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 15 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 collation, with forms such as "ccollation", "clolation", and "colaltion". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 5 confusable-pair relationships, "collision", "collusion", "collection", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English collacioun, collation, from Old French collation, from Latin collatiō, from the participle stem of cōnferō (“to bring together”). The correct English form is collation, spelled C-O-L-L-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1Bringing together.
- 2Bringing together.
- 3Bringing together.
- 4Discussion, light meal.
- 5Discussion, light meal.
- 6Discussion, light meal.
- 7Discussion, light meal.
- 8Discussion, light meal.
- 9The presentation of a clergyman to a benefice by a bishop, who has it in his own gift.
- 10The blending together of property so as to achieve equal division, mainly in the case of inheritance.
- 11An heir's right to combine the whole heritable and movable estates of the deceased into one mass, sharing it equally with others who are of the same degree of kindred.
- 12The act of conferring or bestowing.
- 13Presentation to a benefice.
- 14The specification of how character data should be treated stored and sorted.
- 15The process of establishing a corrected text of a work by comparing differing manuscripts or editions of it; also used to describe the work resulting from such a process.
Etymology
From Middle English collacioun, collation, from Old French collation, from Latin collatiō, from the participle stem of cōnferō (“to bring together”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccollation,clolation,colaltion,colation,collaiton,collasion,collatino,collationn,collatoin,collattion,colltaion,ocllation
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of collation - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "collation"?
What does "collation" mean?
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Using “collation”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-L-L-A-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kəˈleɪʃən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “collision” - see the side-by-side comparison. collation vs collision
- 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.