onstration

Onstration is not a recognized word in standard English. In most cases, it appears as a misspelling or truncation of demonstration, the noun that can refer to showing how something works, a public protest, or a formal proof in mathematics and logic. Because it lacks an established definition, it does not appear in major dictionaries.

Etymology and usage notes suggest that onstration can arise when the initial portion of the word demonstration is inadvertently removed, for example by mistake or in optical character recognition errors. It can also occur as a coined or branded term in niche contexts, but such uses are uncommon and not widely accepted as a separate lexical item.

In contemporary writing, onstration should be corrected to demonstration unless there is a deliberate, context-specific reason to retain the nonstandard form. When encountered, readers typically infer one of three senses from context: a demonstration of a device or procedure (showing how it works), a demonstration as a public protest, or a demonstration in mathematics or logic (a formal proof or argument).

See also: Demonstration; Demonstration (protest); Demonstration (mathematics); Brand names and nonce spellings.