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PlainSpell

transition

tran·si·tionUK /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/noun, verb

transition is spelled T-R-A-N-S-I-T-I-O-N, 3 syllables: tran·si·tion. The wrong spelling people search most is transistion: about 200 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 30 of all searches for the word. Transition is a noun meaning “The process of change from one form, state, style or place to another”. The plural of transition is transitions.

How many letters and syllables are in transition?

Letters10: T-R-A-N-S-I-T-I-O-N
Syllables3: tran·si·tion
In writing29 times per million words; the 3,218th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, transistion, about 200 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 transition?

Transition is spelled T-R-A-N-S-I-T-I-O-N. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 30 of the searches for transition in either form.

transitionthe right spelling5,800 searches a month
transistionan extra s200 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 transition?

Transition appears 29 times per million words in written English, the 3,218th 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 transition?

  • UK /tɹænˈzɪʃ.ən/
  • UK /tɹɑːnˈzɪʃ.ən/
  • UK /-sɪʃ-/

Transition has 3 syllables, split tran·si·tion in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-transition.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Tesco250-transition.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Naomi_Persephone_Amethyst_(NaomiAmethyst)-transition.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with transition?

7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as transition from its last stressed vowel (/ɪʃən/, British pronunciation):

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 transition

  • transitions plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • transitioning participle, present
  • transitioned participle, past

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

What does transition mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    The process of change from one form, state, style or place to another.

  2. 2

    A word or phrase connecting one part of a discourse to another.

    Holonym: metadiscourse

  3. 3

    A brief modulation; a passage connecting two themes.

  4. 4

    A change of key.

  5. 5

    A point mutation in which one base is replaced by another of the same class (purine or pyrimidine); compare transversion.

  6. 6

    A change from defense to attack, or attack to defense.

  7. 7

    The onset of the final stage of childbirth.

  8. 8

    Professional special education assistance for children or adults in the process of leaving one educational environment or support program for another to relatively more independent living.

verb

  1. 1

    To make a transition.

  2. 2

    To bring through a transition; to change.

    The soldier was transitioned from a combat role to a strategic role.

  3. 3

    To change one's gender role or physical and sexual characteristics to conform to one's identified gender.

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

Transition in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchtransition (process of change from one form, state, style…), transitionner, faire une transition (to change from one gender role to another)
GermanÜbergang (process of change from one form, state, style…), transitieren, transitionieren (to change from one gender role to another), Transition (gender-related life change)
Portuguesetransição (process of change from one form, state, style…), transicionar (to undergo a transition)
Spanishtransición (process of change from one form, state, style…)

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 transition come from?

From Middle French transition, from Latin transitio. By surface analysis, transit + -ion.

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

What to look up after transition