composition
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
11 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "composition", 11-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 "composition" 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 "composition" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
composition is aEnglishnoun. It means: The act of putting together; assembly. Pronounced /ˌkɒmpəˈzɪʃən/. It ranks #4,069 in English word frequency. Often confused with compositional and competition.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | composition |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌkɒmpəˈzɪʃən/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #4,069 |
| Misspellings tracked | 17 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for composition is 11 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌkɒmpəˈzɪʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,069 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 19 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 17 documented wrong-spelling variants for composition, with forms such as "ccomposition", "cmoposition", and "commposition". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "compositional", "competition", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English composicioun, borrowed from Old French composicion, from Latin compositiō, compositiōnem. 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 composition, spelled C-O-M-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
- 1The act of putting together; assembly.
- 2A mixture or compound; the result of composing.
- 3The proportion of different parts to make a whole.
- 4The general makeup of a thing or person.
- 5A puzzle created by the composer using chess pieces on a chessboard, which presents the solver with a particular task.
- 6An agreement or treaty used to settle differences; later especially, an agreement to stop hostilities; a truce.
- 7A payment of money in order to clear a liability or obligation; a settling or fine.
- 8A payment of money in order to clear a liability or obligation; a settling or fine.
- 9an agreement or compromise by which a creditor or group of creditors accepts partial payment from a debtor.
- 10An essay.
- 11The formation of compound words from separate words.
- 12A work of music, literature or art.
- 13Typesetting.
- 14Applying a function to the result of another.
- 15The compounding of two velocities or forces into a single equivalent velocity or force.
- 16Consistency; accord; congruity.
- 17Synthesis as opposed to analysis.
- 18The arrangement and flow of elements in a picture.
- 19Way to combine simple objects or data types into more complex ones.
Etymology
From Middle English composicioun, borrowed from Old French composicion, from Latin compositiō, compositiōnem.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccomposition,cmoposition,commposition,comopsition,compoistion,composiiton,composision,compositino,compositionn,compositoin,composittion,compossition,compostiion,compposition,compsoition,copmosition,ocmposition
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for composition
Misspelling Variants of "composition"
Frequency rank: #4,069 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: