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PlainSpell

petition

/pəˈtɪʃ.ən/noun, verb

petition is spelled P-E-T-I-T-I-O-N. The wrong spelling people search most is petetion: about 40 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 149 of all searches for the word. Petition is a noun meaning “A formal written request made by an individual or a group of people to a sovereign or political authority…”. The plural of petition is petitions.

How many letters and syllables are in petition?

Letters8: P-E-T-I-T-I-O-N
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing20 times per million words; the 4,302nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, petetion, about 40 Bing searches a month (all of them)

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).

How do you spell petition?

Petition is spelled P-E-T-I-T-I-O-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 149 of the searches for petition in either form.

petitionthe right spelling5,900 searches a month
petetione in place of i40 searches a month

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 petition?

Petition appears 20 times per million words in written English, the 4,302nd 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 petition?

  • /pəˈtɪʃ.ən/

Petition 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-petition.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of petition

  • petitions plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • petitioning participle, present
  • petitioned participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does petition mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A formal written request made by an individual or a group of people to a sovereign or political authority, often containing many signatures, soliciting some grace, right, mercy, or the redress of some wrong or grievance.

    We're looking to get 10,000 people to sign the petition to have the bird colony given legal protection.

  2. 2

    A formal written application made to a magistrate or court for an order or a suit for divorce.

  3. 3

    A prayer or supplication, especially of which is formal or humble and made to a deity, a sovereign, or an authority.

    a petition to aid

verb

  1. 1

    To make a petition to (a sovereign or political authority).

    The villagers petitioned the council to demolish the dangerous building.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate petition?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of petition: pet.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Petition in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpétition (formal, written request made to an official…), pétitionner (to make a request)
GermanPetition, Eingabe (formal, written request made to an official…)
Portuguesepetição (formal, written request made to an official…), abaixo-assinado (compilation of signatures)
Spanishpetición, instancia, peroración (formal, written request made to an official…), peticionar, perorar, instar (to make a request)

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 petition come from?

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French peticiun, from stem of Latin petitio, petitionem (“a request, solicitation”), from petere (“to require, seek, go forward”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after petition