conniption
/kəˈnɪp.ʃən/noun
conniption is spelled C-O-N-N-I-P-T-I-O-N: 10 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 22 million words in written English, the 141,699th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, conniption means “A fit of anger or panic; conniption fit” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of conniption is conniptions.
How many letters and syllables are in conniption?
| Letters | 10: C-O-N-N-I-P-T-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 22 million words; the 141,699th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is conniption?
Conniption appears about once in every 22 million words in written English, the 141,699th 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 conniption?
- /kəˈnɪp.ʃən/
Conniption has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-conniption.ogg, En-au-conniption.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of conniption
- conniptions plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does conniption mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
informalA fit of anger or panic; conniption fit.
When she came downstairs and saw what her children were eating, she had a conniption.
- 2
A fit of laughing; convulsion.
The joke was not that funny, but he went into conniptions laughing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Conniption in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense fit of anger or panic:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | crise de colère, crise de panique |
| German | Anfall, hysterischer Anfall, Wutanfall, Panikattacke |
| Spanish | ataque de rabia; rabieta |
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 conniption come from?
Since 1833, from American English. Unknown origin, possibly a fanciful alteration of corruption, or maybe related to captious. Alternatively an arbitrary pseudo-Latinism coinage.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).