defending
de·fend·ing/dəˈfɛndɪŋ/noun, verb
defending is spelled D-E-F-E-N-D-I-N-G: 9 letters and 3 syllables (de·fend·ing). It appears 21 times per million words in written English, the 4,076th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, defending means “An act of defence” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of defending is defendings.
How many letters and syllables are in defending?
| Letters | 9: D-E-F-E-N-D-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: de·fend·ing |
| In writing | 21 times per million words; the 4,076th 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 defending?
Defending appears 21 times per million words in written English, the 4,076th 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 defending?
- /dəˈfɛndɪŋ/
Defending has 3 syllables, split de·fend·ing in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-defending.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of defending
- defendings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does defending mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An act of defence.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of defend
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).