fishing
/ˈfɪʃɪŋ/noun, verb
fishing is spelled F-I-S-H-I-N-G: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 30 times per million words in written English, the 3,161st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, fishing means “The act of catching fish” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of fishing is fishings.
How many letters and syllables are in fishing?
| Letters | 7: F-I-S-H-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 30 times per million words; the 3,161st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like |
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 fishing?
Fishing appears 30 times per million words in written English, the 3,161st 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 fishing?
- /ˈfɪʃɪŋ/
Fishing 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: En-us-fishing.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with fishing
Sounds like: phishing (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of fishing
- fishings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does fishing mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of catching fish.
We had a good day's fishing at the weekend.
- 2
informalThe act of catching other forms of seafood, separately or together with fish.
- 3
Commercial fishing: the business or industry of catching fish and other seafood for sale.
This is good news for the fishing industry.
- 4
A fishery, a place for catching fish.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of fish
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Fishing in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | pêche |
| German | Fischen , Fischfang |
| Portuguese | pescaria, pesca |
| Spanish | pesca, pesquería , pesquera |
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 fishing come from?
From Middle English fischynge, equivalent to fish + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).