One Step Now Education

October 9, 2026

abolition

Many great words for studying scientifically can come from the social studies and science units we teach. The word abolition might come up during a unit on slavery or civil rights. Does this word have anything to do with abolish?

Along the way, we'll use context clues to unlock the word's meaning before we ever open a dictionary. We'll also meet the difference between abstract and concrete nouns. Then we'll dig into its structure, including a possible suffixal construction. We will dive into palatalization and examine the terms short and long vowels. And we'll confront a classic spelling trap rooted in schwa and discover the key to figuring it out.

Meaning

What is this word's meaning and how does the word function?

Let's imagine our student ran across the word in their social studies textbook in the following paragraph:

For decades, a growing number of Americans began speaking out against slavery, arguing that it was a moral wrong that had no place in a free country. People like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman risked their lives to help enslaved people escape and to change the laws that kept them in chains. This movement, known as abolition, slowly grew powerful enough to challenge one of the most deeply rooted institutions in American history.

We might use context clues to help them determine the meaning of the word. The context clue used here is a restatement. It is defined in the same sentence as "a movement." The student can then revisit the previous sentences to see what the movement is about.

The entry in the Collins Dictionary for abolition tells us it's the "formal ending" of something. It also contains several examples regarding slavery. In this sense it is an "uncountable noun." A characteristic of most nounsis that they can be pluralized. However, some cannot.

Nouns can also be divided into abstract and concrete. A concrete noun is something that has a physical referent. An abstract noun is an intangible object like an idea or emotion. Some students may struggle to identify abstract nouns as nouns, but there is a structural clue here that may help.

Structure

What are the elements that make up this word's structure?

Many suffixes function grammatically; that is, they inform us of a word's class, and thus, the way a word can be used in a sentence. For example, the suffix <-ous> on the word mysterious tells us that the word can be used adjectivally. We can use it to modify nouns, like the mysterious mansion.

We can hypothesize that the structure of our word is:

abolite/ + ion

The suffix <-ion> is a suffix that reliably forms nouns, and often abstract nouns at that. Words like vacation, transportation, and opposition are all abstract ideas with this suffix.

In some words, the suffix is paired with an <-ate> to create the suffixal construction <-ation>. It can also be paired with

abol + ite/ + ion

I'm also wondering if there is a prefix on this word. I know that can be a prefix in words like asymmetricalor apolitical. I also know that abnormal or abuse.

a + bolite/ + ion
ab + olite/ + ion

At this point, I often inform my students, let's turn to Etymonline to confirm the elements in our word.

The entry for abolition says our word came to us from either French or Latin. In Latin, the noun came from the "past participle stem" of abolere, "destroy." The past participle stem is a reference to the fourth principal part of that Latin verb. We can look in a tool like Lat-Dict to obtain the fourth principal part.

In Lat-Dict, set your search box to Latin to English and type in abolere. The entry gives us the following principal parts:

aboleo, abolere, abolevi, abolitus

When we remove the Latin suffix <-us> from that fourth principal part, we obtain our English base

abolite/ + ion.

But that may not be the end of the story.

See, the entry for abolition also told us to see abolish. And the entry for abolish informs us that the verb abolere is perhaps from adolere. If I remove the infinitive ending from that verb, I get

. And I'd add an

ab + ole/ + ite/ + ion

And yet, the entry goes on to say that it could be from a root in common with Greek olluein, "destroy."

In an Etymonline entry, we must pay attention to the "perhaps." It suggests that there may be more sides to the story.

Relatives

What are the word's relatives and history?

If we are saying that the base of our word is abolish is related. We can add several suffixes to obtain abolitionist, abolishment, abolitionary and abolitionism.

Etymologically, the relationships go back to a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root that also gave us adolescent, adult, alimony, altitude, alumni, exalt, haughty, and prolific.

Graphemes

What can the pronunciation of the word teach us about the relationship of its graphemes and its phonology?

As with many words ending in palatalization. This is a phonological process where the pronunciation shifts back and makes a palatal or palato-alveolar sound like /ʃ/.

This can also occur with the <-ion> suffix in words like passion or suspicion, where the musician as well.

Another area where a learner might struggle to spell this word is with the schwa in the base. A schwa is an unstressed vowel sound. Sometimes, a key to helping with schwa is to know another word in the family where the vowel is more fully pronounced. We have the word abolish, where the lot, which is also known as "short

When it comes to vowels, the terms short and long can be confusing for some students. In English, we do not actually hold a "long" vowel for longer in duration than a short vowel; the difference is in terms of quality instead. Some of my students know the short and long terminology, so I use it with them, but if they do not, I do not introduce it to prevent this misconception. I prefer to just use the actual sounds instead, in this case, /ɑ/ and /oʊ/. Or I might use the same terminology I did above, "the sound in lot" or the sound in goat. For some students we might look at our mouth movements as we make the sound, the jaw drop for /ɑ/ or the round lips for /oʊ/. My instructional moves depend on the student before me.

Next Steps

What concepts from this investigation can we explore next to learn more about the English orthographic system?

So yes, abolition and abolish are from the same root. Over time, I've become more comfortable sharing my questions with students about words and modeling that I don't have all the answers either. Although uncertainty can be a scary feeling when you have 22 pairs of eyes staring back at you, it's a great way to model and develop curiosity for our students. Some of the best learning comes when we've puzzled through something we weren't sure we were right about. If there is one thing we may want to abolish in our classrooms, it's the fear of being wrong.

Stay curious,

Brad

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PPS. There are two <-ish> suffixes I'm aware of. One is the verbal ending you see on our word abolish as well as other verbs like perish or finish. The other is added to adjectives to create a new adjective with a sense of "close to" or "like" the adjective in the base. These include words like reddish and childish.