compunction
/kəmˈpʌŋk.ʃən/
"compunction" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“compunction” is an uncommon English word, ranked #75,749 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #75,749
- frequency rank, English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A pricking of conscience or a feeling of regret, especially one which is slight or fleeting.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | compunction |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kəmˈpʌŋk.ʃən/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #75,749 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “compunction” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for compunction is 11 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kəmˈpʌŋk.ʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #75,749 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A pricking of conscience or a feeling of regret, especially one which is slight or fleeting.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for compunction, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English compunccion, borrowed from Old French compunction, from Late Latin compunctionem (“a pricking”), from Latin compunctus, the past participle of compungere (“to severely prick”), from com- + pungere (“to prick”). The correct English form is compunction, spelled C-O-M-P-U-N-C-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1A pricking of conscience or a feeling of regret, especially one which is slight or fleeting.
Etymology
From Middle English compunccion, borrowed from Old French compunction, from Late Latin compunctionem (“a pricking”), from Latin compunctus, the past participle of compungere (“to severely prick”), from com- + pungere (“to prick”).
This word in other languages
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
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Using “compunction”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-M-P-U-N-C-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kəmˈpʌŋk.ʃən/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.