inflection
in·flec·tion/ɪnˈflɛkʃən/noun
inflection is spelled I-N-F-L-E-C-T-I-O-N: 10 letters and 3 syllables (in·flec·tion). It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 33,636th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, inflection means “The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby words take a number of distinct forms in order to express different grammatical features” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of inflection is inflections.
How many letters and syllables are in inflection?
| Letters | 10: I-N-F-L-E-C-T-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: in·flec·tion |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 33,636th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is inflection?
Inflection appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 33,636th 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 inflection?
- /ɪnˈflɛkʃən/
Inflection has 3 syllables, split in·flec·tion in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-inflection.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of inflection
- inflections plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does inflection mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The linguistic phenomenon of morphological variation, whereby words take a number of distinct forms in order to express different grammatical features.
In English, word order often does the work that inflection did in Latin.
- 2
Any specific type of morphological variation, which applies to a given word class.
The second-person imperative is a verbal inflection found in many Indo-European languages.
- 3
An affix representing a given variation.
English's regular inflection for number in plural nouns is the suffix -s.
- 4
Any specific morphological form of a particular word, such as the principal parts for any given stem; any of the declined or conjugated forms that constitute its declension or conjugation.
Recite every inflection for each of these words.
- 5
A change in pitch or tone of voice.
- 6
A change in curvature from concave to convex or from convex to concave.
- 7
A turning away from a straight course.
inflection from the rules
- 8
Diffraction.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate inflection?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of inflection: infl..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Inflection in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | flexion , inflexion |
| German | Flexion, Beugung, Biegung , Betonung |
| Portuguese | flexão , desvio , inflexão, entonação |
| Spanish | flexión , inflexión |
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 inflection come from?
From older inflexion, borrowed from Middle French inflexion, itself borrowed from Latin inflexiōnem (“alteration”, literally “bending”). The English spelling with ⟨ct⟩ is due to influence from inflect or related words like correction.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).