approaching
/əˈpɹoʊt͡ʃɪŋ/adjective, adverb, noun, verb
approaching is spelled A-P-P-R-O-A-C-H-I-N-G. The wrong spelling people search most is approching: about 50 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Approaching is an adjective meaning “That approaches or approach”.
How many letters and syllables are in approaching?
| Letters | 11: A-P-P-R-O-A-C-H-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 15 times per million words; the 5,407th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, approching, about 50 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell approaching?
Approaching is spelled A-P-P-R-O-A-C-H-I-N-G. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for approaching in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is approaching?
Approaching appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,407th 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).
How do you pronounce approaching?
- US /əˈpɹoʊt͡ʃɪŋ/
- UK /əˈpɹəʊt͡ʃɪŋ/
Approaching has 3 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). Recordings: En-us-approaching.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of approaching
- approachings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does approaching mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
That approaches or approach.
the approaching armies
adverb
- 1
Nearly.
noun
- 1
The act of coming closer; an approach.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of approach
The army was approaching from the north.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Approaching in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Portuguese | aproximante, aproximador |
| Spanish | acercador, acercante, aproximante, aproximador, apropincuante |
| French | approche |
| German | Annäherung |
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.
Where does approaching come from?
By surface analysis, approach + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).