possession

/\pɔ.sɛ.sjɔ̃\/ noun

Letters

10 characters

Frequency Rank

#3,558

in French word usage

Misspellings

11

tracked variants

Confusables

2

similar word pairs

possession is aFrenchnoun. It means: Jouissance, faculté actuelle de disposer ou de jouir d’un bien. Pronounced \pɔ.sɛ.sjɔ̃\. It ranks #3,558 in French word frequency. Often confused with possessions and possessif.

Key facts for possession
PropertyValue
Headwordpossession
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pɔ.sɛ.sjɔ̃\
Letters10
Frequency rank#3,558
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs2
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of possession in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for possession is 10 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pɔ.sɛ.sjɔ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #3,558 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for possession, with forms such as "opssession", "posession", and "posesssion". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "possessions", "possessif", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is possession, spelled P-O-S-S-E-S-S-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Jouissance, faculté actuelle de disposer ou de jouir d’un bien.
  2. 2
    Rapport possessif ou analogue à la possession, exprimé par les adjectifs possessifs comme ma, les pronoms possessifs comme le mien, les adpositions comme de, les verbes comme avoir, etc.
  3. 3
    Terres possédées par un État ou par un particulier.
  4. 4
    Jouissance de certains plaisirs, de certaines choses qu’on a recherchées avec ardeur.
  5. 5
    État d’un homme qu’on dit possédé par le démon.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: opssession,posession,posesssion,possesion,possesison,possessino,possessionn,possessoin,posssesion,ppossession,psosession

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for possession

Misspelling Variants of "possession"

opssession10posession9posesssion10possesion9possesison10possessino10possessionn11possessoin10
Misspelling Variants of "possession"

Frequency rank: #3,558 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "possession"?
"possession" is spelled P-O-S-S-E-S-S-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \pɔ.sɛ.sjɔ̃\.
What does "possession" mean?
As a noun, "possession" means: Jouissance, faculté actuelle de disposer ou de jouir d’un bien.
What words are commonly confused with "possession"?
"possession" is commonly confused with "possessions", "possessif". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "possession"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "possession" is \pɔ.sɛ.sjɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "possession" come from?
"possession" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter P in our French index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.