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PlainSpell

situation

/ˌsɪt.juːˈeɪ.ʃən/noun

situation is spelled S-I-T-U-A-T-I-O-N. The wrong spelling people search most is situtation: about 50 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 67 of all searches for the word. Situation is a noun meaning “The combination of circumstances at a given moment; a state of affairs”. The plural of situation is situations; Wiktionary also lists situatia (humorous).

How many letters and syllables are in situation?

Letters9: S-I-T-U-A-T-I-O-N
Syllables4 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing123 times per million words; the 851st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, situtation, about 50 Bing searches a month (all of them)
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); 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell situation?

Situation is spelled S-I-T-U-A-T-I-O-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 67 of the searches for situation in either form.

situationthe right spelling3,300 searches a month
situtationan extra t50 searches a month

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 situation?

Situation appears 123 times per million words in written English, the 851st 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 situation?

  • US /ˌsɪt.juːˈeɪ.ʃən/
  • US [ˌsɪt.juːˈeɪ.ʃn̩]
  • US /ˌsɪt.juˈeɪ.ʃən/

Situation has 4 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: En-us-situation.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with situation?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as situation from its last stressed vowel (/eɪʃən/):

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 situation

  • situations plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does situation mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The combination of circumstances at a given moment; a state of affairs.

    The United States is in an awkward situation with debt default looming.

  2. 2

    The way in which something is positioned vis-à-vis its surroundings.

    The Botanical Gardens are in a delightful situation on the river bank.

  3. 3

    The place in which something is situated; a location.

  4. 4

    Position or status with regard to conditions and circumstances.

  5. 5

    UKA position of employment; a post.

  6. 6

    A difficult or unpleasant set of circumstances; a problem.

    Boss, we've got a situation here…

  7. 7

    USAn individual movie theater.

  8. 8

    slangAn outfit, garment, or look.

    She is working some sort of amazing burgundy chiffon situation with gold piping.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate situation?

Wiktionary records 3 abbreviations of situation: sit, situ, situash.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Situation in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsituation (combination of circumstances at a given moment…), lieu, localisation (location)
GermanSituation (combination of circumstances at a given moment…), Ort, Platz (location), Lage (position vis-à-vis surroundings)
Portuguesesituação (combination of circumstances at a given moment…), localização (location), posição (position vis-à-vis surroundings)
Spanishsituación, estado, tesitura (combination of circumstances at a given moment…), localización, ubicación (position vis-à-vis surroundings)

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 situation come from?

From Middle English situacioun, situacion, from Middle French situation, from Medieval Latin situatio (“position, situation”), from situare (“to locate, place”), from Latin situs (“a site”). By surface analysis, situate + -ion.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after situation