severance payment

noun

"severance-payment" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“severance payment” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
17
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Money that an employer pays to an employee when the employee leaves the company in case of layoffs, often in exchange for some kind of waiver.

Key facts for severance payment
PropertyValue
Headwordseverance payment
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters17
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “severance payment” sits in English frequency

severance payment falls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for severance payment is 17 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Money that an employer pays to an employee when the employee leaves the company in case of layoffs, often in exchange for some kind of waiver.".

No misspelling variants are generated for severance payment in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct English form is severance payment, spelled S-E-V-E-R-A-N-C-E- -P-A-Y-M-E-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Money that an employer pays to an employee when the employee leaves the company in case of layoffs, often in exchange for some kind of waiver.

Synonyms

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "severance payment"?
"severance payment" is spelled S-E-V-E-R-A-N-C-E- -P-A-Y-M-E-N-T.
What does "severance payment" mean?
As a noun, "severance payment" means: Money that an employer pays to an employee when the employee leaves the company in case of layoffs, often in exchange for some kind of waiver.
What language does "severance payment" come from?
"severance payment" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Using “severance payment”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is S-E-V-E-R-A-N-C-E- -P-A-Y-M-E-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list