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tanning

/ˈtænɪŋ/noun, verb

tanning is a noun meaning “The process of making leather, which does not easily decompose, from the easily decomposing skins of animals” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled T-A-N-N-I-N-G and has 2 syllables, and it appears 2.0 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of tanning is tannings.

What does tanning mean?

noun

  1. 1

    The process of making leather, which does not easily decompose, from the easily decomposing skins of animals.

  2. 2

    The acquisition of a tan, either by exposure to the sun, or artificially.

  3. 3

    informalA spanking.

verb

  1. 1

    present participle and gerund of tan (a form of tan)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce tanning?

  • /ˈtænɪŋ/

Tanning has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Forms of tanning

  • tannings plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is tanning?

Tanning appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,336th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Tanning in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Portuguesecurtimento (the process of making leather), bronzeamento (act of becoming tan due to sun exposure)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.