permission
per·mis·sion/pəɹˈmɪʃ.ən/noun, verb
permission is spelled P-E-R-M-I-S-S-I-O-N, 3 syllables: per·mis·sion. The wrong spelling people search most is permision: about 80 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 56 of all searches for the word. Permission is a noun meaning “authorisation; consent (especially formal consent from someone in authority)”. The plural of permission is permissions.
How many letters and syllables are in permission?
| Letters | 10: P-E-R-M-I-S-S-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: per·mis·sion |
| In writing | 32 times per million words; the 2,992nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 3; the most searched, permision, about 80 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell permission?
Permission is spelled P-E-R-M-I-S-S-I-O-N. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 20 of the searches for permission 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 permission?
Permission appears 32 times per million words in written English, the 2,992nd 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 permission?
- UK /pəˈmɪʃ.ən/
- US /pəɹˈmɪʃ.ən/
Permission has 3 syllables, split per·mis·sion in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-permission.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with permission?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as permission from its last stressed vowel (/ɪʃən/):
- position
- competition
- opposition
- composition
- acquisition
- coalition
- physician
- politician
- admission
- nutrition
- expedition
- ambition
Spelled with the same letters in another order: impression.
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 permission
- permissions plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- permissioning participle, present
- permissioned participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does permission mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
authorisation; consent (especially formal consent from someone in authority)
Sire, do I have your permission to execute this traitor?
- 2
The act of permitting.
- 3
Flags or access control lists pertaining to a file that dictate who can access it, and how.
I used the "chmod" command to change the file's permission.
verb
- 1
To grant or obtain authorization for.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Permission in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense authorisation:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | permission, permis |
| German | Erlaubnis, Gestattung, Genehmigung |
| Portuguese | permissão |
| Spanish | permiso, venia, beneplácito, permisión, impetra |
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 permission come from?
From Middle English permision, permission, permissioun, permyssion, from Middle French permission, from Latin permissiō. Equivalent to permit + -ion. Mostly replaced native English leave, from Old English lēaf (“permission”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).