abstention

\ap.stɑ̃.sjɔ̃\

/\ap.stɑ̃.sjɔ̃\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“abstention” has 15 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #10,982. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#10,982
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords
15
tracked misspellings
2
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Action de s’abstenir, non-exercice d’un droit, refus de prendre part, d’intervenir.

Corpus desk

Index FR-abstention · abstention · French

abstention · rank #10,982 · 15 variants · 2 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #10,982
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 15 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH accessibilité

Nearest frequency peer: accessibilité (+1 rank slots)

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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « abstention »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « abstention » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

abstention vs attention
80% similar
abstention vs abstentions
91% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for abstention
PropertyValue
Headwordabstention
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ap.stɑ̃.sjɔ̃\
Letters10
Frequency rank#10,982
Misspellings tracked15
Confusable pairs2
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « abstention »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).abstentionse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « accessibilité » (#10,983), « étonnante » (#10,980), « accession » (#10,984). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « abstention » est au #10,982. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 15 spelling variants around abstention (IPA \ap.stɑ̃.sjɔ̃\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #10,982 among 6,727 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for abstention, with forms such as "abbstention", "absetntion", and "absstention". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "attention", "abstentions", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

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 French form is abstention, spelled A-B-S-T-E-N-T-I-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Action de s’abstenir, non-exercice d’un droit, refus de prendre part, d’intervenir.
  2. 2
    Résultat de cette action.
  3. 3
    Acte par lequel un juge s’abstient, se récuse lui-même.
  4. 4
    Attitude d’une personne se retenant à jouir d’un plaisir.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how abstention appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. L'abstention de vote. L'abstention des électeurs.
  2. Ce qu’ils rêvaient, c’était l’abstention complète, la panique générale des fonctionnaires. Si toute administration régulière disparaissait, et s’ils étaient alors un seul jour les maîtres des destinées de Plassans, leur fortune était solidement fondée.

Synonyms

ABSABST

This word in other languages

abstention(English)abstención(Español)Enthaltung(Deutsch)abstinência(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • abbstention
  • absetntion
  • absstention
  • absteniton
  • abstenntion
  • abstentino
  • abstentionn
  • abstentoin
  • abstenttion
  • abstetnion
  • abstnetion
  • absttention
  • abtsention
  • asbtention
  • bastention

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of abstention - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

abbstention1absetntion2absstention1absteniton2abstenntion1abstentino2abstentionn1abstentoin2
Edit distance from "abstention"

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 "abstention"?
"abstention" is spelled A-B-S-T-E-N-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \ap.stɑ̃.sjɔ̃\.
What does "abstention" mean?
As a noun, "abstention" means: Action de s’abstenir, non-exercice d’un droit, refus de prendre part, d’intervenir.
What words are commonly confused with "abstention"?
"abstention" is commonly confused with "attention", "abstentions". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "abstention"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "abstention" is \ap.stɑ̃.sjɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "abstention" come from?
"abstention" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "abstention", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

alignement#10,985animateurs#10,988antérieure#10,989assistants#10,994

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (15 here; floor ≥5).

dynamiques15 variantsdéveloppées15 variantsexcellentes15 variantsinterrompre15 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list