Skip to main content
PlainSpell

indentation

/ˌɪndɛnˈteɪʃən/noun

indentation is spelled I-N-D-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-N: 11 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 44,767th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, indentation means “The act of indenting or state of being indented” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of indentation is indentations.

How many letters and syllables are in indentation?

Letters11: I-N-D-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-N
Syllables4 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 44,767th 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 indentation?

Indentation appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 44,767th 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 indentation?

  • /ˌɪndɛnˈteɪʃən/

Indentation has 4 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-indentation.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of indentation

  • indentations plural

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

What does indentation mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    The act of indenting or state of being indented.

  2. 2

    A notch or recess, in the margin or border of anything.

    the indentations of a leaf

  3. 3

    A recess or sharp depression in any surface.

  4. 4

    The act of beginning a line or series of lines at a little distance within the flush line of the column or page, as in the common way of beginning the first line of a paragraph.

  5. 5

    A measure of the distance from the flush line.

    an indentation of one em

  6. 6

    A division unit of a piece of law distinguished by its indentation or by a dash.

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

Indentation in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchindentation (act of indenting or state of being indented), tiret (a division unit of a piece of law)
GermanSpiegelstrich (a division unit of a piece of law), Delle (notch or recess in a margin or border), Einbuchtung, Vertiefung (recess or sharp depression in a surface), Einrückung (act of beginning a line at a distance from the…), Einzug (measure of distance to the flush line)
Portuguesetravessão (a division unit of a piece of law), indentação (notch or recess in a margin or border)
Spanishmuesca, entrante, indentación (recess or sharp depression in a surface), sangría, sangrado (act of beginning a line at a distance from the…)

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 indentation come from?

From indent + -ation.

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

What to look up after indentation