cushion
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "cushion", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "cushion" 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 "cushion" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
cushion is aEnglishnoun. It means: A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support. Pronounced /ˈkʊʃən/. Often confused with cushions and cushioned.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cushion |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkʊʃən/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #13,316 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cushion is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkʊʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #13,316 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for cushion, with forms such as "ccushion", "csuhion", and "cuhsion". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "cushions", "cushioned", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English quysshyn, from later Old French coissin (modern coussin), from Vulgar Latin *coxīnus (“seat pad”), derived from Latin coxa (“hip, thigh”) (with the suffix possibly after Latin pulvīnus (“pillow”)), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ko… 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 cushion, spelled C-U-S-H-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support.
- 2A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support.
- 3A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support.
- 4Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact.
- 5Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact.
- 6Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact.
- 7Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact.
- 8Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact.
- 9Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact.
- 10Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact.
- 11a sufficient quantity of an intangible object (like points or minutes) to allow for some of those points, for example, to be lost without hurting one's chances for successfully completing an objective.
- 12a sufficient quantity of an intangible object (like points or minutes) to allow for some of those points, for example, to be lost without hurting one's chances for successfully completing an objective.
- 13The dancer in the cushion dance who currently holds the cushion, or the dance itself.
Etymology
From Middle English quysshyn, from later Old French coissin (modern coussin), from Vulgar Latin *coxīnus (“seat pad”), derived from Latin coxa (“hip, thigh”) (with the suffix possibly after Latin pulvīnus (“pillow”)), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *koḱs- (“joint, limb”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccushion,csuhion,cuhsion,cushhion,cushino,cushionn,cushoin,cusihon,cusshion,ucshion
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for cushion
Misspelling Variants of "cushion"
Frequency rank: #13,316 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: