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modus-tollens

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

13 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "modus-tollens", 13-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "modus-tollens" 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 "modus-tollens" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

modus tollens is aEnglishnoun. It means: A valid form of argument in which the consequent of a conditional proposition is denied, thus implying the denial of the antecedent. Modus tollens has this form

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Key facts for modus tollens
PropertyValue
Headwordmodus tollens
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters13
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

modus tollens is not present in the top-100,000 ranked English corpus, typical for technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary.

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for modus tollens is 13 letters long, classified as anoun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A valid form of argument in which the consequent of a conditional proposition is denied, thus implying the denial of the antecedent. Modus tollens has this form".

No misspelling variants are generated for modus tollens in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Latin modus tollendō tollēns (“the mode where the denying denies”), from modus (“mode”) and forms of tollō (“I take away”). 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 modus tollens, spelled M-O-D-U-S- -T-O-L-L-E-N-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A valid form of argument in which the consequent of a conditional proposition is denied, thus implying the denial of the antecedent. Modus tollens has this form

Etymology

From Latin modus tollendō tollēns (“the mode where the denying denies”), from modus (“mode”) and forms of tollō (“I take away”).

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "modus tollens"?
"modus tollens" is spelled M-O-D-U-S- -T-O-L-L-E-N-S.
What does "modus tollens" mean?
As a noun, "modus tollens" means: A valid form of argument in which the consequent of a conditional proposition is denied, thus implying the denial of the antecedent. Modus tollens has this form
What is the origin of the word "modus tollens"?
From Latin modus tollendō tollēns (“the mode where the denying denies”), from modus (“mode”) and forms of tollō (“I take away”). See the full etymology section above for more details.
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Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.