childhood
child·hood/ˈtʃaɪld.hʊd/noun
childhood is spelled C-H-I-L-D-H-O-O-D: 9 letters and 2 syllables (child·hood). It appears 32 times per million words in written English, the 2,941st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, childhood means “The state of being a child” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of childhood is childhoods.
How many letters and syllables are in childhood?
| Letters | 9: C-H-I-L-D-H-O-O-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: child·hood |
| In writing | 32 times per million words; the 2,941st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 childhood?
Childhood appears 32 times per million words in written English, the 2,941st 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 childhood?
- /ˈtʃaɪld.hʊd/
Childhood has 2 syllables, split child·hood in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-childhood.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of childhood
- childhoods plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does childhood mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The state of being a child.
- 2
The time during which one is a child, from between infancy and puberty.
- 3
The early stages of development of something.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Childhood in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | enfance |
| German | Kindheit, Kindschaft , Kinderzeit , Anfangszeit |
| Portuguese | infância |
| Spanish | niñez, puericia |
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 childhood come from?
From Middle English childhode, childhod, from Old English ċildhād (“childhood”). By surface analysis, child + -hood. Compare dialectal Dutch kindheid (“childishness”), German Low German Kinnerheid (“childhood”), and German Kindheit (“childhood”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).