negation
/nɪˈɡeɪʃn̩/noun
negation is spelled N-E-G-A-T-I-O-N: 8 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,320th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, negation means “The act of negating something” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of negation is negations.
How many letters and syllables are in negation?
| Letters | 8: N-E-G-A-T-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 35,320th 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 negation?
Negation appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,320th 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 negation?
- /nɪˈɡeɪʃn̩/
- /nəˈɡeɪʃn̩/
- /neˈɡeɪʃn̩/
Negation 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-negation.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of negation
- negations plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does negation mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of negating something.
- 2
A denial or contradiction.
- 3
A proposition which is the contradictory of another proposition and which can be obtained from that other proposition by the appropriately placed addition, or insertion, of the word "not". (Or, in symbolic logic, by prepending that proposition with the symbol for the logical operator "not".)
- 4
The logical operation which obtains such (negated) propositions.
- 5
A negative particle; a word, particularly an adverb, with a negative meaning: for instance, no and not in English, nōn, haud and nē in Latin, οὐ and μή in ancient Greek.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Negation in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | négation |
| German | Verneinung, Negierung , Negation |
| Portuguese | negação |
| Spanish | negación |
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 negation come from?
From Middle English negacioun, from Old French negacion, from Latin negātiō (“a denial; negative word”). Morphologically negate + -ion.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).