opposition
/ˌɑ.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/noun
opposition is spelled O-P-P-O-S-I-T-I-O-N. The wrong spelling people search most is oposition: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 34 of all searches for the word. Opposition is a noun meaning “The action of opposing or of being in conflict”. The plural of opposition is oppositions.
How many letters and syllables are in opposition?
| Letters | 10: O-P-P-O-S-I-T-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 37 times per million words; the 2,618th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, oposition, about 40 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
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); 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell opposition?
Opposition is spelled O-P-P-O-S-I-T-I-O-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 35 of the searches for opposition 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 opposition?
Opposition appears 37 times per million words in written English, the 2,618th 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 opposition?
- UK /ˌɒp.əˈzɪʃ.ən/
- US /ˌɑ.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/
Opposition has 4 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-opposition.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with opposition?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as opposition from its last stressed vowel (/ɪʃən/):
- position
- competition
- permission
- composition
- acquisition
- coalition
- physician
- politician
- admission
- nutrition
- expedition
- ambition
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of opposition
- oppositions plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does opposition mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The action of opposing or of being in conflict.
The two politicians are in opposition to the bill.
- 2
An opposite or contrasting position.
Near-synonym: oppositeness
- 3
The apparent relative position of two celestial bodies when one is at an angle of 180 degrees from the other as seen from the Earth.
- 4
A political party or movement opposed to the party or government in power.
leader of the opposition
- 5
In United States intellectual property law, a proceeding in which an interested party seeks to prevent the registration of a trademark or patent.
- 6
A position in which the player on the move must yield with his king allowing his opponent to advance with his own king.
- 7
The difference of quantity or quality between two propositions having the same subject and predicate.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Opposition in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Portuguese | oposição |
| French | opposition |
| German | Opposition |
| Spanish | oposición |
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 opposition come from?
From Middle English opposicioun, from Old French oposicion (whence French opposition), from Late Latin oppositiō, translating Ancient Greek ἀντίθεσις (antíthesis), from the past participle stem of classical Latin oppōnō (“to set against”). Equivalent to oppose + -ition.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).