drowning
/ˈdɹaʊnɪŋ/noun, verb
drowning is spelled D-R-O-W-N-I-N-G: 8 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 5.9 times per million words in written English, the 10,028th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, drowning means “An instance of a person or animal drowning” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of drowning is drownings.
How many letters and syllables are in drowning?
| Letters | 8: D-R-O-W-N-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 5.9 times per million words; the 10,028th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is drowning?
Drowning appears 5.9 times per million words in written English, the 10,028th 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 drowning?
- /ˈdɹaʊnɪŋ/
- /ˈdɹuːnɪn/
Drowning 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). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-drowning.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of drowning
- drownings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does drowning mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An instance of a person or animal drowning.
It's dangerous to swim in that river – there were three drownings there last year.
- 2
An instance of a person or animal being drowned.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of drown
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Drowning in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense instance of drowning:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | noyade |
| German | Ertrinken |
| Portuguese | afogamento |
| Spanish | ahogamiento |
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.