regression
/ɹiːˈɡɹɛʃ.ən/noun
regression is spelled R-E-G-R-E-S-S-I-O-N: 10 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,928th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, regression means “An action of regressing, a return to a previous state” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of regression is regressions.
How many letters and syllables are in regression?
| Letters | 10: R-E-G-R-E-S-S-I-O-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.2 times per million words; the 14,928th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is regression?
Regression appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,928th 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 regression?
- UK /ɹɪˈɡɹɛʃ.ən/
- US /ɹiːˈɡɹɛʃ.ən/
- US /ɹɪˈɡɹɛʃ.ən/
Regression 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)-Jjamesryan-regression.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with regression?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as regression from its last stressed vowel (/ɛʃən/):
- session
- profession
- aggression
- obsession
- progression
- compression
- oppression
- suppression
- concession
- accession
- hessian
- digression
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 regression
- regressions plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does regression mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An action of regressing, a return to a previous state.
- 2
An action of travelling mentally back in time.
- 3
A psychotherapeutic method whereby healing is facilitated by inducing the patient to act out behaviour typical of an earlier developmental stage.
- 4
An analytic method to measure the association of one or more independent variables with a dependent variable.
- 5
An equation using specified and associated data for two or more variables such that one variable can be estimated from the remaining variable(s).
- 6
The reappearance of a bug in a piece of software that had previously been fixed.
- 7
The diminishing of a cellular mass like a tumor, or of an organ size.
- 8
The making an exercise less straining to perform by manipulating the details of its performance like loaded weight, range of motion, angle, speed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Regression in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense return to a previous state:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | régression |
| German | Rückbildung, Rückfall, Rückgang, Rückschritt |
| Portuguese | regressão |
| Spanish | regresión, retroceso |
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 regression come from?
Learned borrowing from Latin regressio. Equivalent to regress + -ion. The statistics sense comes from regression to the mean.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).