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divergence

/daɪˈvɜː(ɹ)d͡ʒəns/noun

divergence is spelled D-I-V-E-R-G-E-N-C-E: 10 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 23,253rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, divergence means “The state or degree of being divergent: of diverging” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of divergence is divergences.

How many letters and syllables are in divergence?

Letters10: D-I-V-E-R-G-E-N-C-E
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.5 times per million words; the 23,253rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 divergence?

Divergence appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 23,253rd 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 divergence?

  • /daɪˈvɜː(ɹ)d͡ʒəns/
  • /dɪˈvɜː(ɹ)d͡ʒəns/

Divergence 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-divergence.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of divergence

  • divergences plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does divergence mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The state or degree of being divergent: of diverging.

    An angle is made by the divergence of straight lines.

  2. 2

    The operator which maps a function F=(F₁, ... Fₙ) from a n-dimensional vector space to itself to the function ∑ᵢ₌₁ⁿ(∂F_i)/(∂x_i).

  3. 3

    obsoleteDisagreement; difference.

  4. 4

    The process in which two or more populations accumulate genetic changes (mutations) through time.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Divergence in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdivergence (the degree of divergence)
GermanAbweichung (the degree of divergence), Divergenz (mathematical operator)
Portuguesedivergência (the degree of divergence), divergente (mathematical operator)
Spanishdivergencia (the degree of divergence)

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 divergence come from?

By surface analysis, diverge + -ence.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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