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PlainSpell

stigmatism

/ˈstɪɡməˌtɪzəm/noun

stigmatism is a noun meaning “Image-formation property of an optical system which focuses a single point source in object space into a single point in image space” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled S-T-I-G-M-A-T-I-S-M and has 4 syllables, and it appears about once in every 87 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of stigmatism is stigmatisms.

What does stigmatism mean?

noun

  1. 1

    Image-formation property of an optical system which focuses a single point source in object space into a single point in image space

  2. 2

    Normal eyesight, anastigmatic state

  3. 3

    State of having stigmata

  4. 4

    Alternative form of astigmatism.

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

How do you pronounce stigmatism?

  • /ˈstɪɡməˌtɪzəm/

Stigmatism 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Paul2520-stigmatism.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of stigmatism

  • stigmatisms plural

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

How common is stigmatism?

Stigmatism appears about once in every 87 million words in written English, the 297,763rd 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).

Stigmatism in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

In the sense optics: image-formation property of an optical system:

LanguageWords
Frenchstigmatisme

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 stigmatism come from?

Derived from Ancient Greek στίγματος (stígmatos, “point”) + -ism.

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