film
/fɪlm/noun, verb
film is spelled F-I-L-M: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 158 times per million words in written English, the 638th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, film means “A thin layer of some substance; a pellicle; a membranous covering, causing opacity” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of film is films.
How many letters and syllables are in film?
| Letters | 4: F-I-L-M |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 158 times per million words; the 638th 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 film?
Film appears 158 times per million words in written English, the 638th 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 film?
- /fɪlm/
- [fɪɫm]
- [ˈfɪlm̩]
Film has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-film.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of film
- films plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- filming participle, present
- filmed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does film mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A thin layer of some substance; a pellicle; a membranous covering, causing opacity.
a clear plastic film for wrapping food
- 2
A medium used to capture images in a camera.
- 3
The sequence of still images itself, which produces a moving image when played; a movie.
- 4
A visual art form that consists of a sequence of still images preserved on a recording medium to give the illusion of motion; movies generally.
- 5
A professionally made movie of a substantial narrative work, around 1 to 3 hours long; a feature film; a cinematic movie.
- 6
A slender thread, such as that of a cobweb.
verb
- 1
To record (activity, or a motion picture) on photographic film.
A Hollywood studio was filming on location in NYC.
- 2
To visually record (activity, or a motion picture) in general, with or without sound.
- 3
To cover or become covered with a thin skin or pellicle.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Film in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pellicule , filmer, tourner |
| German | Film , filmen, drehen |
| Portuguese | película, filme , filmar |
| Spanish | película, film , filmar, rodar, cinematografiar , filme |
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 film come from?
From Middle English filme, from Old English filmen (“film, membrane, thin skin, foreskin”), from Proto-West Germanic *filmīn-, from Proto-Germanic *filmīn- (“thin skin, membrane”) (compare Proto-Germanic *felma- (“skin, hide”)), from Proto-Indo-European *pél-mo- (“membrane”), from *pel- (“to cover, skin”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).