effing
/ˈɛfɪŋ/adjective, adverb, verb
effing is spelled E-F-F-I-N-G: 6 letters. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 39,336th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, effing means “Minced oath of fucking” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in effing?
| Letters | 6: E-F-F-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 39,336th 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 effing?
Effing appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 39,336th 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 effing?
- /ˈɛfɪŋ/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-effing.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What does effing mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
slangMinced oath of fucking.
The effing car's broken down again!
adverb
- 1
slangMinced oath of fucking.
She is effing hot!
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of eff
I wish he'd stop effing and blinding.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Effing in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense minced oath of fucking:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | verflixt, Mist- |
| Portuguese | do cão, do caneco, pra caneco, ate dizer chega, a beça, pra K7 |
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 effing come from?
From eff (“fuck”) + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).