How to spell destruction

hear itde·struc·tion/dɪ'strəkʃən/nounSchwa and roots

What it means: The act of ruining or breaking something completely.

In a sentence: The storm caused the destruction of the little sandcastle we built.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as destrution or destruktion.

Same family: destroy, destructive, destructively, indestructible, destructor. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Destruction” comes from Latin *destructio*, from *destruere* meaning “to tear down,” built from *de-* (“down, away”) and *struere* (“to build”). It’s related to words like “construction” and “structure,” which share the same root for “build.”

Patterns it uses: -tion, -sion or -cian?

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

deduction · prescription · registration · identification · graduation · compensation · authorization · verification

Spelling.School is a spaced-repetition spelling practice: ten minutes a day, every word spoken aloud, every miss explained, and every word coming back just before you would forget it. Try five words without signing up.