spoliation
/spəʊliˈeɪʃn̩/
"spoliation" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“spoliation” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The action of spoliating, or forcibly seizing property; pillage, plunder; also, the state of having property forcibly seized; (countable) an instance of this; a robbery, a seizure.
Corpus desk
Index EN-spoliation · spoliation · English
spoliation · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | spoliation |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /spəʊliˈeɪʃn̩/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “spoliation” in English
Rare enough to double-check
spoliation is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /spəʊliˈeɪʃn̩/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 7 senses are on record.
spoliation has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Late Middle English spoliacioun (“looting, robbery, theft; an instance of this; (ecclesiastical) wrongful deprivation of the emoluments of a benefice due to another”), from Anglo-Norman spoliacioun, espolïacion, and directly from their etymon spoliātiō… The correct English form is spoliation, spelled S-P-O-L-I-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1The action of spoliating, or forcibly seizing property; pillage, plunder; also, the state of having property forcibly seized; (countable) an instance of this; a robbery, a seizure.
- 2The action of destroying or ruining; destruction, ruin.
- 3The action of an incumbent (“holder of an ecclesiastical benefice”) wrongfully depriving another of the emoluments of a benefice.
- 4A lawsuit brought or writ issued by an incumbent against another, claiming that the latter has wrongfully taken the emoluments of a benefice.
- 5The intentional destruction of, or tampering with, a document so as to impair its evidentiary value.
- 6The systematic forcible seizure of property during a crisis or state of unrest such as that caused by war, now regarded as a crime; looting, pillage, plunder; (countable) an instance of this.
- 7The government-sanctioned action or practice of plundering neutral ships at sea; (countable) an instance of this.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how spoliation appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The weapons of the empire had been […] an unequalled genius for organization, and an uniform system of external law and order. This was generally a real boon to conquered nations, because it substituted a fixed and regular spoliation for the fortuitous and arbitrary miseries of savage warfare: […]
How many people out of the suit, Jarndyce and Jarndyce has stretched forth its unwholesome hand to spoil and corrupt, would be a very wide question. […] In trickery, evasion, procrastination, spoliation, botheration, under false pretences of all sorts, there are influences that can never come to good.
Etymology
From Late Middle English spoliacioun (“looting, robbery, theft; an instance of this; (ecclesiastical) wrongful deprivation of the emoluments of a benefice due to another”), from Anglo-Norman spoliacioun, espolïacion, and directly from their etymon spoliātiō (“plundering, robbing”), from spoliāre (“to deprive or strip of clothing or covering, unclothe, uncover; (by extension) to pillage, plunder; etc.”), from spolium (“hide or skin stripped off an animal; (by extension) booty, spoil; etc.”). The English word was probably also influenced by French spoliation.
This word in other languages
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.