retention
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
9 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "retention", 9-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "retention" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "retention" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
retention is aEnglishnoun. It means: The act of retaining or something retained. Pronounced /ɹɪˈtɛnʃən/. It ranks #9,525 in English word frequency. Often confused with reception and rejection.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | retention |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɹɪˈtɛnʃən/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #9,525 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for retention is 9 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɹɪˈtɛnʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,525 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 14 documented wrong-spelling variants for retention, with forms such as "ertention", "reetntion", and "reteniton". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "reception", "rejection", "resection", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English retencioun, borrowed from Latin retentiō, retentiōnis, from retentus, the perfect passive participle of retineō (“retain”) (from re- (“back, again”) + teneō (“hold, keep”)). Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is retention, spelled R-E-T-E-N-T-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The act of retaining or something retained.
- 2The act or power of remembering things.
- 3Memory; what is retained in the mind.
- 4The involuntary withholding of urine and faeces.
- 5The length of time a patient remains in treatment.
- 6That which contains something, as a tablet; a means of preserving impressions.
- 7The act of withholding; restraint; reserve.
- 8A place of custody or confinement.
- 9The right to withhold a debt, or of retaining property until a debt due to the person claiming the right is duly paid; a lien.
- 10The portion of a potential damage that must be paid for by the holder of an insurance policy.
Etymology
From Middle English retencioun, borrowed from Latin retentiō, retentiōnis, from retentus, the perfect passive participle of retineō (“retain”) (from re- (“back, again”) + teneō (“hold, keep”)).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ertention,reetntion,reteniton,retenntion,retension,retentino,retentionn,retentoin,retenttion,retetnion,retnetion,rettention,rretention,rteention
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for retention
Misspelling Variants of "retention"
Frequency rank: #9,525 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter R in our English index: