self-flagellation

1. 1.

   self-punishment inflicted by whipping

   Broaderwhippingself-punishment

Questions about self-flagellation

What does self-flagellation mean?

self-flagellation means "self-punishment inflicted by whipping".

How many syllables are in self-flagellation?

self-flagellation has 6 syllables: self--fla-gel-la-ti-on. The stress falls on "ti".

Is self-flagellation a common word?

self-flagellation is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.