fleeting
/ˈfliːtɪŋ/adjective, noun, verb
fleeting is spelled F-L-E-E-T-I-N-G: 8 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 19,077th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, fleeting means “Passing quickly; of short duration” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in fleeting?
| Letters | 8: F-L-E-E-T-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.1 times per million words; the 19,077th 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 fleeting?
Fleeting appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 19,077th 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 fleeting?
- /ˈfliːtɪŋ/
Fleeting 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-fleeting.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of fleeting
- more fleeting comparative
- most fleeting superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does fleeting mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Passing quickly; of short duration.
- 2
That which flees, especially quickly; fugitive.
noun
- 1
USAn automatic operation mode of an absolute signal that reserves a route for several trains following one another, without the need for dispatcher to re-set the route for each train.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of fleet
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Fleeting in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense passing quickly:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | fugace, éphémère, passagère |
| German | flüchtig, unbeständig, vergänglich, kurz |
| Portuguese | fugaz |
| Spanish | fugaz, pasajero, breve, efímero, instantáneo, momentáneo |
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 fleeting come from?
From Middle English fleten (“to float”), from Old English flēotan (“to float”), from Proto-Germanic *fleutaną, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd-. By surface analysis, fleet + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).