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PlainSpell

boiling

boil·ing/ˈbɔɪlɪŋ/noun, adjective, adverb, verb

boiling is spelled B-O-I-L-I-N-G: 7 letters and 2 syllables (boil·ing). It appears 5.6 times per million words in written English, the 10,358th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, boiling means “The process of changing the state of a substance from liquid to gas by heating it to its boiling point” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of boiling is boilings.

How many letters and syllables are in boiling?

Letters7: B-O-I-L-I-N-G
Syllables2: boil·ing
In writing5.6 times per million words; the 10,358th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is boiling?

Boiling appears 5.6 times per million words in written English, the 10,358th 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 boiling?

  • US /ˈbɔɪlɪŋ/

Boiling has 2 syllables, split boil·ing in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-boiling.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of boiling

  • boilings plural
  • more boiling comparative
  • most boiling superlative

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

What does boiling mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The process of changing the state of a substance from liquid to gas by heating it to its boiling point.

  2. 2

    The cooking (of food) or cleaning (of an object) by immersing it in liquid (usually water) that is boiling.

  3. 3

    A turmoil; a disturbance like that of bubbling water.

  4. 4

    An animation style with constantly changing wavy outlines, giving a shimmering or wobbling appearance.

adjective

  1. 1

    That boils or boil.

    boiling kettle  boiling oil

  2. 2

    informalOf a thing: extremely hot or active.

    The radiator is boiling – I’m going to turn it down a bit.

  3. 3

    informalOf a person: feeling uncomfortably hot.

    I’m boiling – can’t we open a window?

  4. 4

    informalOf the weather: very hot.

    It’s boiling out today!

adverb

  1. 1

    Extremely

    He was boiling mad.

verb

  1. 1

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

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

Boiling in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchébullition, bouillonnement (process of changing the state of a substance), bouillant (that boil(s))
Portugueseebulição, fervura (process of changing the state of a substance), fervente (that boil(s))
Germankochend (that boil(s))
Spanishhervoroso (that boil(s))

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 boiling come from?

From boil + -ing.

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

What to look up after boiling