transliteration
/ˌtɹænzlɪtəˈɹeɪʃən/noun
transliteration is a noun meaning “The act or product of transliterating, of representing letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled T-R-A-N-S-L-I-T-E-R-A-T-I-O-N, and it appears about once in every 4 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of transliteration is transliterations.
What does transliteration mean?
noun
- 1
The act or product of transliterating, of representing letters or words in the characters of another alphabet or script.
- 2
The act or product of rendering speech in sign language, or vice versa.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce transliteration?
- /ˌtɹænzlɪtəˈɹeɪʃən/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-transliteration.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of transliteration
- transliterations plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is transliteration?
Transliteration appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 57,423rd 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 abbreviate transliteration?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of transliteration: translit.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Transliteration in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense product of transliterating:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | transcription, translittération |
| German | Transkription, Transliteration, Umschrift, Umschreibung |
| Portuguese | transcrição, transliteração |
| Spanish | transcripción, transliteración |
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 transliteration come from?
From trans- + literation.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).