Cancellation

How to spell cancellation

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce cancellation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cancellation mean?

1. nounThe act of calling off, annulling, or stopping something that was arranged.

Cancellation in a sentence

• The airline sent a cancellation notice for the morning flight.

• A late cancellation of the hotel booking still incurred a fee.

Where does cancellation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word goes back to the Latin verb cancellare, which literally meant 'to mark with crossed lines' or 'to make like a lattice', from cancelli, the small crossing bars of a grille or railing. Roman scribes voided a document by drawing a criss-cross pattern of lines over it, so 'to cross out' became 'to annul'. The verb passed through Old French canceler into English in the late Middle Ages, and the noun cancellation was formed on the Latin pattern to name the act of calling something off. Interestingly, the same cancelli root also gave us 'chancel', the latticed-off area of a church near the altar. A useful spelling hint is that the doubled 'll' survives in 'cancellation' across all dialects, even though American English often drops one 'l' in 'canceled'.

How the word is built

• cancel- (from Latin cancellare: to cross out with lattice-like lines)
• -ation (noun of action)

British and American spelling

Cancellation is the British spelling. American English spells it cancelation.