reversal
/ɹɪˈvɜː(ɹ)səl/noun
reversal is spelled R-E-V-E-R-S-A-L. The wrong spelling people search most is reveral: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 34 of all searches for the word. Reversal is a noun meaning “The state of being reversed”. The plural of reversal is reversals.
How many letters and syllables are in reversal?
| Letters | 8: R-E-V-E-R-S-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.6 times per million words; the 13,695th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, reveral, about 20 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 reversal?
Reversal is spelled R-E-V-E-R-S-A-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 34 of the searches for reversal 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 reversal?
Reversal appears 3.6 times per million words in written English, the 13,695th 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 reversal?
- /ɹɪˈvɜː(ɹ)səl/
Reversal 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-reversal.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of reversal
- reversals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does reversal mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The state of being reversed.
- 2
An instance of reversing.
- 3
A change to an opposite direction.
- 4
A change in fortune; a change from being successful to having problems.
- 5
A rule in Tycoon where a three of a particular suit (most commonly spades) can beat a single joker. During revolution, most rulesets instead use a two of that suit to do this.
adjective
- 1
obsoleteIntended to reverse; implying reversal.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Reversal in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense an instance of reversing:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | renversement, inversion |
| Spanish | inversión, retorno, revocación, reversión, retrocesión |
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 reversal come from?
Inherited from Middle English reversall. By surface analysis, reverse + -al.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).