ablation
\a.bla.sjɔ̃\
The verdict
“ablation” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #26,240 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #26,240
- frequency rank, French
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Action d’amputer un être vivant d’une partie de son corps.
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 | ablation |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \a.bla.sjɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #26,240 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ablation” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for ablation is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \a.bla.sjɔ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #26,240 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for ablation, with forms such as "abaltion", "abblation", and "ablaiton". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "aviation", "aération", "abolition", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is ablation, spelled A-B-L-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1Action d’amputer un être vivant d’une partie de son corps.
- 2Action de retrancher du corps une partie morbide.
- 3Action d’un flux de matière ou de rayonnement sur la surface d’un corps, entraînant une perte de substance de celui-ci par décomposition chimique, changement d’état ou érosion mécanique.
- 4Action d’enlever, de retirer une chose de façon généralement brutale.
- 5Suppression soit totale, soit partielle, d’une partie quelconque d’un végétal.
- 6Action d’érosion d’une surface, matière ; ou le phénomène en lui-même.
- 7Perte de glace subie par un glacier soit par fusion, soit par sublimation.
- 8Retranchement d’une syllabe ou d’une lettre au commencement d’un mot. Il peut s’agir de l’action ou du résultat de celle-ci.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: abaltion,abblation,ablaiton,ablatino,ablationn,ablatoin,ablattion,abllation,abltaion,albation,balation
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ablation - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "ablation"?
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Using “ablation”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is A-B-L-A-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \a.bla.sjɔ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “aviation” - see the side-by-side comparison. ablation vs aviation
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French 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.