You ever notice how certain words just feel... heavy? Like they have a specific kind of gravity to them? Most of the time, those are words ending in ion. Honestly, if you stripped these words out of a legal contract or a scientific paper, the whole thing would probably just evaporate into thin air. They are the structural steel of English.
But there is a weird thing happening. We use them so much that we’ve kind of stopped seeing how they actually work.
English is a bit of a scavenger. It takes bits and pieces from everywhere. These specific suffixes—usually -tion, -sion, or -ion—are basically ghosts of Latin. They turn actions into things. It’s a process called nominalization. You take a perfectly good verb like "act" and you stretch it out into "action." Now, instead of just doing something, you have a concept. You have a noun.
The Latin Connection You Probably Forgot
Most of these words hitched a ride into English during the Norman Conquest in 1066. Before that, Old English was much more "grunt and do." When the French-speaking Normans took over, they brought a massive pile of Latin-based vocabulary with them. This changed everything. Suddenly, we didn't just have folk; we had a population. We didn't just guess; we had intuition.
It’s about power.
Think about it. In a courtroom, nobody just "decides." There is a decision. In a lab, a scientist doesn't just "mix stuff." They perform a recombination. By adding those three little letters, we move from the physical world of movement into the abstract world of ideas. It's how we build complex systems. It’s also how we make things sound way more complicated than they actually are.
Why Your Brain Loves (and Hates) These Words
There is some fascinating stuff in linguistics about how our brains process suffixes. Dr. Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist at Harvard, has written extensively about how the human mind handles language rules. When we see a word ending in "ion," our brain recognizes a pattern. We know it’s a noun. We know it’s likely an abstract concept.
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But there’s a catch.
If you use too many of them, you get "zombie nouns." This is a term coined by Helen Sword, a scholar who looks at academic writing. Zombie nouns suck the life out of sentences. Look at this: "The realization of the medication's administration was a revelation."
That sentence is a nightmare. It’s clunky. It’s slow. It feels like walking through waist-deep mud. Yet, in the business world, people talk like this all the time because they think it sounds professional. It doesn't. It just sounds like an instruction manual for a toaster.
The Great Spelling Divide: Tion vs Sion
Spelling these things is a disaster for most people. Is it permission or permittion? (It's permission). Why?
The rule is actually pretty consistent if you know where to look. Usually, if the root word ends in a "t," the noun version ends in -tion. Like invent becomes invention. If the root word ends in a "d" or an "s," you’re looking at -sion. Decide becomes decision. Confess becomes confession.
Of course, English loves to mess with you. There are outliers everywhere. But generally, the -tion ending is way more common. It appears in thousands of words, while -sion is the rarer, slightly more sophisticated cousin.
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Where You’ll See Them Most
If you’re reading a technical manual, you’re drowning in them. Instruction, calibration, operation. It’s necessary there because technical writing needs to be precise. You aren't just "fixing" a machine; you are performing restoration.
In the world of lifestyle and self-help, these words take on a different vibe. Think about meditation. Or reflection. These aren't just actions; they are states of being. We treat them as destinations. People spend thousands of dollars on transformation retreats. It sounds much more impressive than just saying "I want to change."
The Evolution of New "Ion" Words
Language isn't static. We are making up new words ending in ion all the time, even if they aren't "official" yet. In tech circles, you might hear someone talk about the app-ification of the economy. It’s ugly, sure, but we all know exactly what it means. We take a noun (app), turn it into a verb (appify), and then drag it back into noun-town (appification).
It’s a cycle.
Breaking the Habit of Overuse
If you want to actually write well, you have to be careful with these. Professional editors often look for "ion" words as a red flag for "nominalization." If a sentence feels heavy, find the word ending in ion and try to turn it back into a verb.
Instead of saying "The collection of data was performed by the team," just say "The team collected the data."
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See? It’s faster. It’s punchier. It actually has a heartbeat.
However, don't ditch them entirely. You need words like passion, vision, and emotion. Try describing a breakup without using the word tension. It’s hard. These words allow us to categorize the messy, internal parts of being human. They give a name to the invisible.
The Heavy Hitters You Use Every Day
- Communication: Basically the reason society exists.
- Education: What you're doing right now, hopefully.
- Evolution: Not just for biology, but for your tastes in music.
- Imagination: The weirdest thing the human brain does.
- Opinion: Everyone has one, and usually, they're too loud about it.
It’s weird to think that three letters can carry that much weight, but they do. They change the tone of a conversation instantly. They can make you sound like a genius or a total bore.
How to Use This Knowledge
Don't just memorize a list. That’s boring and useless. Instead, start noticing when these words show up in your daily life. When you see a word ending in ion, ask yourself: is this word doing real work, or is it just taking up space?
If you're writing an email and you see five words ending in "ion" in one paragraph, delete three of them. Your reader's brain will thank you. But when you need to describe a complex "situation" or a grand "ambition," lean into them. They are tools. Use them like a scalpel, not a sledgehammer.
Start by auditing your most recent "professional" email. Look for the "ions." If you find yourself saying "I have a recommendation for the organization of the presentation," stop. Just say "I suggest we organize the slides this way." You'll sound more like a human and less like a corporate algorithm.
Actionable Steps for Better Writing
- The Ion Audit: Scan your last three sent emails. Highlight every word ending in -ion, -sion, or -tion.
- Verb Reversion: Take at least two of those highlighted words and rewrite the sentence using the active verb form (e.g., change "utilization" to "use").
- Check the Root: If you’re unsure about spelling, find the root word. If it ends in 'd' or 's', use -sion. If it's a 't', go with -tion.
- Read Aloud: Listen for the "shun" sound. If your paragraph sounds like a rhythmic chant of "shun-shun-shun," you’ve over-nominalized and need to cut back for clarity.