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 and divides as self--fla-gel-la-ti-on under the regular spelling rules. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

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.