Pavilion

How to spell pavilion

8 letters · 3 syllables

The most common mistake is pavillion. The letters people get wrong are highlighted.

pavillion pavilion

What people typed instead

• pavillion7 people

How to pronounce pavilion

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pavilion mean?

1. nounA light or ornamental building, tent, or stand, often at a sports ground, garden, or exhibition.

Pavilion in a sentence

• The cricket team gathered in the pavilion during the rain break.

• Each company rented a pavilion at the trade exhibition.

Where does pavilion come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin papilio, which literally meant 'butterfly' or 'moth'. Roman speakers playfully extended that word to a tent, because a tent with its outspread, fluttering flaps looked like the wings of a butterfly. The term passed into Old French as 'paveillon', keeping the sense of a grand tent or canopy, and English borrowed it in the 1200s. Over the centuries the meaning settled onto built structures: an ornamental garden building, a sports ground clubhouse, or a stand at an exhibition. The single 'l' and the '-ion' ending are the usual spelling traps, since the word sounds as though it might carry a doubled letter or an '-ian' close.

How the word is built

• pavili- (from Latin papilio: butterfly, then tent)
• -on (noun ending via French)