inability
/ˌɪnəˈbɪlɪti/noun
inability is spelled I-N-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is inablility: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 51 of all searches for the word. Inability is a noun meaning “Lack of the ability to do something; incapability”. The plural of inability is inabilities.
How many letters and syllables are in inability?
| Letters | 9: I-N-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 5 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 8.5 times per million words; the 7,910th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, inablility, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell inability?
Inability is spelled I-N-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 51 of the searches for inability in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is inability?
Inability appears 8.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,910th 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 inability?
- /ˌɪnəˈbɪlɪti/
Inability has 5 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-inability.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of inability
- inabilities plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does inability mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Lack of the ability to do something; incapability.
- 2
Lack of the option to do something; powerlessness.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Inability in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense lack of the ability to do something; incapability:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | incapacité |
| German | Unfähigkeit, Unvermögen |
| Portuguese | inabilidade, incapacidade |
| Spanish | incapacidad |
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 inability come from?
From earlier inhability (“disqualification for office”), equivalent to in- + ability. Compare Middle French inhabilité, Medieval Latin inhabilitās.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).