detention

Other forms of detention

plural

detentions·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about detention

What does detention mean?

detention means "a state of being confined (usually for a short time)". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in detention?

detention has 3 syllables: de-ten-tion. The stress falls on "ten". In IPA it is /dɪˈtɛnʃən/.

What is another word for detention?

Close synonyms include detainment, hold, custody. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is detention a common word?

detention is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with detention?

7 words rhyme with detention. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.