Petting

[ˈpɛtɪŋ]

/[ˈpɛtɪŋ]/ noun

The verdict

“Petting” is uncommon German (frequency #86,905 among 3,409 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#86,905
frequency rank, German
3,409
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - jede Art von sexueller Betätigung ohne Geschlechtsverkehr

Corpus desk

Index DE-petting · Petting · German

Petting · rank #86,905 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #86,905
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,409
  • PHOTO-FINISH pflanz

Nearest frequency peer: pflanz (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Langschwanz-Ränge nahe „Petting“

Dünnes Band: Balken invertieren den Rang, seltenere Formen wirken kürzer

corpus weight

What this shows Langschwanz-Sicht: wo „Petting“ gegen ähnlich seltene deutsche Ränge sitzt.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Petting
PropertyValue
HeadwordPetting
LanguageGerman
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈpɛtɪŋ]
Letters7
Frequency rank#86,905
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „Petting“ im Deutschen

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.Pettingfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „pflanz“ (#86,906), „Pflanzenart“ (#86,907), „Petras“ (#86,902). Unter 3,409 „P“-Lemmata liegt „Petting“ bei #86,905. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Petting is uncommon German at frequency #86,905 among 3,409 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ˈpɛtɪŋ]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "jede Art von sexueller Betätigung ohne Geschlechtsverkehr".

Petting doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct German form is Petting, spelled P-E-T-T-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    jede Art von sexueller Betätigung ohne Geschlechtsverkehr

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how Petting appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Meine Freundin und ich haben bisher nur Petting gemacht.
  2. „Junge Leute beginnen meistens in der Form des Petting ihre ersten sexuellen Erfahrungen zu sammeln, mit Liebkosungen, Streicheln, Küssen oder sich aneinander schmiegen.“

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "Petting"?
"Petting" is spelled P-E-T-T-I-N-G. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈpɛtɪŋ].
What does "Petting" mean?
As a noun, "Petting" means: jede Art von sexueller Betätigung ohne Geschlechtsverkehr
How do you pronounce "Petting"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Petting" is [ˈpɛtɪŋ]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Petting" come from?
"Petting" is a German word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "Petting", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list