vacillation
/væsɪˈleɪʃən/
"vacillation" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“vacillation” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Indecision in speech or action.
Corpus desk
Index EN-vacillation · vacillation · English
vacillation · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "V" 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 | vacillation |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /væsɪˈleɪʃən/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “vacillation” in English
Rare enough to double-check
vacillation is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /væsɪˈleɪʃən/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for vacillation in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English vacillacion, a learned borrowing from Latin vacillātiō (“swaying”). By surface analysis, vacillate + -ion. The correct English form is vacillation, spelled V-A-C-I-L-L-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1Indecision in speech or action.
- 2Changing location by moving back and forth.
Etymology
From Middle English vacillacion, a learned borrowing from Latin vacillātiō (“swaying”). By surface analysis, vacillate + -ion.
Synonyms
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.