refusal
/ɹɪˈfjuːzl̩/noun
refusal is spelled R-E-F-U-S-A-L. The wrong spelling people search most is refusla: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 85 of all searches for the word. Refusal is a noun meaning “The act of refusing”. The plural of refusal is refusals.
How many letters and syllables are in refusal?
| Letters | 7: R-E-F-U-S-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 6.8 times per million words; the 9,165th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, refusla, about 10 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 refusal?
Refusal is spelled R-E-F-U-S-A-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 85 of the searches for refusal 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 refusal?
Refusal appears 6.8 times per million words in written English, the 9,165th 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 refusal?
- /ɹɪˈfjuːzl̩/
Refusal 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-refusal.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of refusal
- refusals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does refusal mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of refusing.
Your refusal to carry out your duties resulted in your sacking.
- 2
Depth or point at which well or borehole drilling cannot continue.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Refusal in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the act of refusing:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | refus |
| German | Ablehnung, Weigerung, Verweigerung, Absage |
| Portuguese | recusa, negativa |
| Spanish | negativa, rechazo |
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 refusal come from?
Inherited from Middle English refusell. By surface analysis, refuse + -al.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).