inspection
/ɪnˈspɛkʃən/noun
inspection is spelled I-N-S-P-E-C-T-I-O-N: 10 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,679th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, inspection means “The act of examining something, often closely” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of inspection is inspections.
How many letters and syllables are in inspection?
| Letters | 10: I-N-S-P-E-C-T-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 14 times per million words; the 5,679th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 inspection?
Inspection appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,679th 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 inspection?
- /ɪnˈspɛkʃən/
Inspection has 3 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-inspection.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of inspection
- inspections plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does inspection mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of examining something, often closely.
Upon closer inspection, the animal turned out to be a dolphin, not a shark!
- 2
An organization that checks that certain laws or rules are obeyed.
The inspection fined the restaurant's owner because the kitchen was dirty.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate inspection?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of inspection: insp.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Inspection in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the act of examining something, often closely:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | inspection |
| German | Inspektion, Prüfung |
| Portuguese | inspeção |
| Spanish | inspección |
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 inspection come from?
From Middle French, from Old French inspeccion, from Latin īnspectiō (“examination, inspection”), from the verb īnspiciō (“to inspect”), from speciō (“to look at”). By surface analysis, inspect + -ion.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).