occasion
oc·ca·sion/əˈkeɪ̯ʒən/noun, verb
occasion is spelled O-C-C-A-S-I-O-N, 3 syllables: oc·ca·sion. The wrong spelling people search most is occassion: about 640 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Occasion is a noun meaning “A favorable opportunity; a convenient or timely chance”. The plural of occasion is occasions.
How many letters and syllables are in occasion?
| Letters | 8: O-C-C-A-S-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: oc·ca·sion |
| In writing | 24 times per million words; the 3,752nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 5; the most searched, occassion, about 640 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 occasion?
Occasion is spelled O-C-C-A-S-I-O-N. 5 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for occasion 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 occasion?
Occasion appears 24 times per million words in written English, the 3,752nd 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 occasion?
- /əˈkeɪ̯ʒən/
- [əˈkʰeɪ̯ʒən] ~ [əˈkʰeɪ̯ʒn̩]
Occasion has 3 syllables, split oc·ca·sion in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-occasion.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of occasion
- occasions plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- occasioning participle, present
- occasioned participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does occasion mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A favorable opportunity; a convenient or timely chance.
At this point, she seized the occasion to make her own observation.
- 2
The time when something happens.
On this occasion, I'm going to decline your offer, but next time I might agree.
- 3
An occurrence or state of affairs which causes some event or reaction; a motive or reason.
I had no occasion to feel offended, however.
- 4
Something which causes something else; a cause.
- 5
obsoleteAn occurrence or incident.
- 6
A particular happening; an instance or time when something occurred.
I could think of two separate occasions when she had deliberately lied to me.
- 7
A need; requirement, necessity.
I have no occasion for firearms.
- 8
A special event or function.
Having people round for dinner was always quite an occasion at our house.
verb
- 1
To cause; to produce; to induce
It is seen that the mental changes are occasioned by a change of polarity.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate occasion?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of occasion: occn..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Occasion in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | occasion |
| German | Gelegenheit , Mal , Anlass |
| Portuguese | ocasião |
| Spanish | ocasión , ocasionar |
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 occasion come from?
From Middle English occasioun, from Middle French occasion, from Old French occasiun, from Latin occāsiōnem, noun of action from perfect passive participle occāsus, from verb occidō, from prefix ob- (“down", "away”) + verb cadō (“fall”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).