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session

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

7 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "session", 7-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 "session" 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 "session" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

session is aEnglishnoun. It means: A period of time devoted to a particular activity. Pronounced /ˈsɛ.ʃən/. It ranks #1,966 in English word frequency. Often confused with sessions and season.

Key facts for session
PropertyValue
Headwordsession
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈsɛ.ʃən/
Letters7
Frequency rank#1,966
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of session in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for session is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsɛ.ʃən/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,966 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for session, with forms such as "esssion", "sesion", and "sesison". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "sessions", "season", "section", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English session, from Old French session, from Latin sessiō (“a sitting”), from sedeō (“sit”). 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 session, spelled S-E-S-S-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A period of time devoted to a particular activity.
  2. 2
    An official meeting or term of a council, court, or other body to conduct its business; e.g. the annual or semiannual periods of a legislature (that together comprise the legislative term), whose individual meetings are also called sessions.
  3. 3
    The sequence of interactions between client and server, or between user and system; the period during which a user is logged in or connected.
  4. 4
    Any of the three scheduled two-hour playing sessions, from the start of play to lunch, from lunch to tea and from tea to the close of play.
  5. 5
    The act of sitting, or the state of being seated.
  6. 6
    Ellipsis of jam session, used in isolate particularly for folk music.
  7. 7
    An academic term; semester; school year.
  8. 8
    An extended period of drinking, typically consuming beer with low alcohol content.
  9. 9
    The ruling body of a congregation, consisting of the pastor and elders.

Etymology

From Middle English session, from Old French session, from Latin sessiō (“a sitting”), from sedeō (“sit”).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: esssion,sesion,sesison,sessino,sessionn,sessoin,sestion,ssesion,ssession

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for session

Misspelling Variants of "session"

esssion7sesion6sesison7sessino7sessionn8sessoin7sestion7ssesion7
Misspelling Variants of "session"

Frequency rank: #1,966 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "session"?
"session" is spelled S-E-S-S-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈsɛ.ʃən/.
What does "session" mean?
As a noun, "session" means: A period of time devoted to a particular activity.
What words are commonly confused with "session"?
"session" is commonly confused with "sessions", "season", "section". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "session"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "session" is /ˈsɛ.ʃən/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "session"?
From Middle English session, from Old French session, from Latin sessiō (“a sitting”), from sedeō (“sit”). See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.