initiation
/ɪˌnɪʃ.iˈeɪ.ʃən/noun
initiation is spelled I-N-I-T-I-A-T-I-O-N. The wrong spelling people search most is initation: about 140 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 14 of all searches for the word. Initiation is a noun meaning “The act of initiating, or the process of being initiated or introduced”. The plural of initiation is initiations.
How many letters and syllables are in initiation?
| Letters | 10: I-N-I-T-I-A-T-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 5 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.3 times per million words; the 14,509th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, initation, about 140 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 initiation?
Initiation is spelled I-N-I-T-I-A-T-I-O-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 14 of the searches for initiation 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 initiation?
Initiation appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th 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 initiation?
- /ɪˌnɪʃ.iˈeɪ.ʃən/
Initiation 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-initiation.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of initiation
- initiations plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does initiation mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of initiating, or the process of being initiated or introduced.
initiation into a society
- 2
The form or ceremony by which a person is introduced into any society; mode of entrance into an organized body; especially, the rite of admission into a secret society or order.
- 3
The first step of transcription or of transduction.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Initiation in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | initiation |
| German | Initiation, Initiierung |
| Portuguese | iniciação |
| Spanish | inicio , iniciación |
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 initiation come from?
Borrowed from Middle French initiation, from Latin initiātiō. Morphologically initiate + -ion.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).