attrition
/əˈtɹɪʃn̩/US/əˈtɹɪʃən/
attrition noun: grinding down or wearing away by friction.
Noun
attrition (countable and uncountable, plural attritions)
- Grinding down or wearing away by friction.
- Antonyms:
- accretion
- The wearing of teeth due to their grinding.
- A gradual reduction in number.
- Recent years have seen […] more and more blatant reversals of previous Supreme Court decisions in favor of the constitutional rights of minorities. These increasingly conservative decisions, and constant attrition of individuals' rights, have directly paralleled the alarming increase of convictions...1990 December 16, Tom Sparks, “Universal Suffrage”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 22, page 4
- But the rise of multiracialism is not all Kumbaya choruses and “postracial” identity. The N.A.A.C.P. criticized the census change, fearing that since so few in the black community are of fully African descent, mass attrition to a mixed-race option could threaten political clout and Federal...2008 March 23, Peggy Orenstein, “Mixed Messenger”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 06 Nov 2020
- Antonyms:
- accretion
- A gradual, natural reduction in membership or personnel, as through injury, incapacitation, retirement, resignation, or death.
- The loss of participants during an experiment.
- The loss of a first or second language or a portion of that language.
- Imperfect contrition or remorse.
Verb
attrition (third-person singular simple present attritions, present participle attritioning, simple past and past participle attritioned)
- To grind or wear down through friction.
- attritioned teeth; attritioned rock
- […] He took her in his arms
And kissed her long and wetly,
Till, attritioned by her charms,
His will collapsed completely.1989, Shashi Tharoor, The Great Indian Novel, New York: Arcade, Book 9, p. 189
- Synonyms:
- attrit
- To reduce the number of (jobs or workers) by not hiring new employees to fill positions that become vacant (often with out).
- […] but the heart of the health services in New York will have to attrition out some 3,000 to 5,000 jobs.1973, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Education, Hearings, page 186
- […] expenses can be cut, by attritioning faculty vacancies […]1989, Herbert S. White, “The Future of Library and Information Science Education”, in Librarians and the Awakening from Innocence,, Boston: G.K. Hall, page 86
- To undergo a reduction in number.
- The cohort of one hundred students had attritioned to sixty by the end of secondary school.
attrition meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
attrition in Hindi
- एट्रिशनिंग
attrition in Tamil
- பணியாளர் அகல்வு, பணியாளர் விலகுதல், உரசல், மாதி உடைதல், உராய்வுத் தேய்மானம், சிராய்ப்பு
attrition in Marathi
- अट्रिशन
attrition in Urdu
- گھسائی, خستگی, زوال, ندامت
More languagesFewer languages
- attrition in Bengali
- ঘর্ষণ, ক্রমাগত চাপের ফলে ক্ষয়, সংখ্যা হ্রাস
- attrition in Malayalam
- ക്ഷയം, ക്ഷയിക്കൽ, ക്ഷീണിക്കൽ, ക്ഷയം സംഭവിക്കൽ
- attrition in Kannada
- ತೇಮಾನ, ಸವೆತ
- attrition in Punjabi
- ਐਟਰੀਸ਼ਨ, ਐਟਰੀਸ਼ਨਿੰਗ
- attrition in Gujarati
- અટ્રિશન, એટ્રશન, એટરીશનિંગ
- attrition in Odia
- ଅଟ୍ରିସନିଂ
- attrition in Nepali
- अट्रिशन, एट्रिसनिंग, एट्रिसन गर्न
Examples of attrition in a sentence
- An increasing demand for skills in niche technologies coupled with higher attrition have prompted these software services firms to organise walk-ins for technology talent too.
- The Astra Militarum achieve their victories through hellstorms of firepower, grinding attrition and sheer dogged determination.
- First-term attrition can be 30 percent or more, and many attritees do not reach E-4, let alone E-5.
Synonyms of attrition
Antonyms
Forms of attrition
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | attritions |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | attritions |
| present participle | attritioning |
| past participle | attritioned |
| past | attritioned |
Origin of attrition
First attested in the 15th century, from Middle English attricion, attricioun, from Middle French attricion, attrition and its etymon, Latin attrītiō (“a rubbing against”), from the verb attrītus, past participle of atterō (“to wear”), from ad- (“to, towards”) + terō (“to rub”). By surface analysis, attrit + -ion.
Words formed from attrition
Phrases with attrition
Words that rhyme with attrition
- partition
- position
- proposition
- transition
- mission
- condition
- commission
- transmission
- addition
- admission
- expedition
- remission
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- rendition
- exhibition
- submission
- ignition
- inhibition
- inquisition
- intromission
- magician
- omission
- suspicion
- tradition
- dentition
- edition
- patrician
- politician
- tuition
- acquisition
- circumposition
- decommission
- fission
- nutrition
- perdition
- permission
- phonetician
- prohibition
- superposition
- volition
- academician
- aesthetician
- Apician
- clinician
- coalition
- disquisition
- emission
- fruition
- Galician
- on a mission
- optician
- postposition
- premonition
- recommission
- retransition
- sedition
- superstition
- titian
- abligurition
- admonition
- adposition
Questions about attrition
- What does attrition mean?
- Attrition means grinding down or wearing away by friction.
- What is attrition in Hindi?
- Attrition in Hindi is एट्रिशनिंग. See Attrition meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is attrition?
- Attrition can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce attrition?
- Attrition is pronounced /əˈtɹɪʃən/ (US).
- What is the plural of attrition?
- The plural of attrition is attritions.
Words near attrition in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: attrition (page history and authors); attrition (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); attrition (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); attrition (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); attrition (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); attrition (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); attrition (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); attrition (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); attrition (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); attrition (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); attrition (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); attrition (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-attrition.wav.
Cite this entry: “attrition.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/attrition. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.