inspiration
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
11 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "inspiration", 11-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "inspiration" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "inspiration" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
inspiration is aEnglishnoun. It means: The drawing of air into the lungs, accomplished in mammals by elevation of the chest walls and flattening of the diaphragm, as part of the act of breathing. Pronounced /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/. It ranks #3,564 in English word frequency. Often confused with instigation and inspirational.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | inspiration |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #3,564 |
| Misspellings tracked | 17 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for inspiration is 11 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,564 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 17 documented wrong-spelling variants for inspiration, with forms such as "innspiration", "inpsiration", and "insipration". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "instigation", "inspirational", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English inspiracioun, from Old French inspiration, from Late Latin īnspīrātiōnem (nominative: īnspīrātiō), from Latin īnspīrātus (past participle of inspīrō). By surface analysis, inspire + -ation. Displaced native Old English onbryrdnes (litera… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is inspiration, spelled I-N-S-P-I-R-A-T-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The drawing of air into the lungs, accomplished in mammals by elevation of the chest walls and flattening of the diaphragm, as part of the act of breathing.
- 2A single inward breath (intake of air).
- 3A supernatural divine influence on the prophets, apostles, or sacred writers, by which they were qualified to communicate moral or religious truth with authority; a supernatural influence which qualifies people to receive and communicate divine truth; also, the truth communicated.
- 4The act or process of an elevating or stimulating influence upon the intellect, emotions or creativity.
- 5A person, object, or situation which quickens or stimulates an influence upon the intellect, emotions or creativity.
- 6A new idea, especially one which arises suddenly and is clever or creative.
Etymology
From Middle English inspiracioun, from Old French inspiration, from Late Latin īnspīrātiōnem (nominative: īnspīrātiō), from Latin īnspīrātus (past participle of inspīrō). By surface analysis, inspire + -ation. Displaced native Old English onbryrdnes (literally “in-pricked-ness”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: innspiration,inpsiration,insipration,inspiartion,inspiraiton,inspirasion,inspiratino,inspirationn,inspiratoin,inspirattion,inspirration,inspirtaion,insppiration,inspriation,insspiration,isnpiration,nispiration
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for inspiration
Misspelling Variants of "inspiration"
Frequency rank: #3,564 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter I in our English index: