Attrition

How to spell attrition

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce attrition

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does attrition mean?

1. nounA gradual reduction in numbers, especially of staff or members, through resignation, retirement, or natural departure rather than deliberate cuts.
2. nounThe process of weakening an opponent by sustained pressure that gradually wears down their strength and resources.

Attrition in a sentence

• The company reduced its headcount through natural attrition rather than redundancies.

• The long campaign became a war of attrition that drained both sides of supplies.

• High staff attrition in the call centre pushed up recruitment costs every quarter.

• The defenders relied on attrition to exhaust the besieging army over the winter.

Where does attrition come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin attritio, meaning a rubbing against or a wearing away, which was built from the verb atterere, formed from ad meaning 'to' or 'against' and terere meaning 'to rub'. That same terere root for rubbing also gives us 'trite', literally something worn thin by overuse, so the family connection is a useful memory hook for the double t. English first borrowed the word in the 1300s in a strictly religious sense, describing an imperfect sorrow for sin born of fear rather than pure love of God, contrasted with full 'contrition'. From the 1600s the more literal idea of gradual wearing down through friction took hold, and from there it spread into military language for grinding an enemy down and into modern business talk for the steady loss of staff or customers. The trap in spelling is the doubled t inherited from the ad- prefix meeting the trit root, followed by the soft -ition ending.

How the word is built

• at- (from ad-, to/against)
• trit (from terere, to rub or wear)
• -ion (noun suffix)