abstención
[aβ̞st̪ẽnˈsjõn]
The verdict
“abstención” is a moderately-common Spanish word, ranked #15,522 in Spanish word frequency and used as a noun.
- #15,522
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 10
- letters
- 17
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Acción o efecto de abstenerse.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | abstención |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [aβ̞st̪ẽnˈsjõn] |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #15,522 |
| Misspellings tracked | 17 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “abstención” sits in Spanish frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Spanish entry for abstención is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [aβ̞st̪ẽnˈsjõn]. Corpus data places it at rank #15,522 in overall Spanish word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Acción o efecto de abstenerse.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for abstención, with forms such as "abbstención", "absetnción", and "absstención". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "atención", "abstenciones", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct Spanish form is abstención, spelled A-B-S-T-E-N-C-I-Ó-N.
Definition
- 1Acción o efecto de abstenerse.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: abbstención,absetnción,absstención,abstecnión,abstencción,abstencinó,abstenciónn,abstencóin,abstenicón,abstennción,abstensión,abstneción,absttención,abtsención,asbtención,avstención,bastención
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of abstención - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "abstención"?
What does "abstención" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "abstención"?
How do you pronounce "abstención"?
What language does "abstención" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “abstención”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is A-B-S-T-E-N-C-I-Ó-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [aβ̞st̪ẽnˈsjõn] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “atención” - see the side-by-side comparison. abstención vs atención
- Browse more Spanish words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Spanish words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.