expression
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
10 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "expression", 10-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 "expression" 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 "expression" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
expression is aEnglishnoun. It means: The action of expressing thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc. Pronounced /əkˈspɹɛʃ.n̩/. It ranks #2,734 in English word frequency. Often confused with expressive and expressions.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | expression |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /əkˈspɹɛʃ.n̩/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #2,734 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for expression is 10 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /əkˈspɹɛʃ.n̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,734 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 14 documented wrong-spelling variants for expression, with forms such as "epxression", "experssion", and "exppression". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "expressive", "expressions", "expressing", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Middle French expression, from Late Latin expressiō, expressiōnem (“a pressing out”). Morphologically express + -ion. 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 expression, spelled E-X-P-R-E-S-S-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The action of expressing thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc.
- 2A particular way of phrasing an idea.
- 3A colloquialism or idiom.
- 4A facial appearance usually associated with an emotion.
- 5An arrangement of symbols denoting values, operations performed on them, and grouping symbols.
- 6The process of translating a gene into a protein.
- 7A piece of code in a high-level language that returns a value.
- 8A specific blend of whisky.
- 9The act of pressing or squeezing out.
- 10The tone of voice or sound in music.
- 11Emotional involvement or engagement in a text read aloud rendered by the voice of the reciter or the reader.
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French expression, from Late Latin expressiō, expressiōnem (“a pressing out”). Morphologically express + -ion.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: epxression,experssion,exppression,expresion,expresison,expressino,expressionn,expressoin,exprestion,exprression,exprsesion,exrpession,exxpression,xepression
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for expression
Misspelling Variants of "expression"
Frequency rank: #2,734 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter E in our English index: