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PlainSpell

following

fol·low·ing/ˈfɑloʊɪŋ/adjective, preposition, noun, verb

following is spelled F-O-L-L-O-W-I-N-G, 3 syllables: fol·low·ing. The wrong spelling people search most is folowing: about 20 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 118 of all searches for the word. Following is an adjective meaning “Coming next, either in sequence or in time”.

How many letters and syllables are in following?

Letters9: F-O-L-L-O-W-I-N-G
Syllables3: fol·low·ing
In writing288 times per million words; the 329th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched3; the most searched, folowing, about 20 Bing searches a month (all of them)

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell following?

Following is spelled F-O-L-L-O-W-I-N-G. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 59 of the searches for following in either form.

followingthe right spelling2,330 searches a month
folowinga missing l20 searches a month
follwinga missing o10 searches a month
follwoingo and w swapped10 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is following?

Following appears 288 times per million words in written English, the 329th 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 following?

  • UK /ˈfɒləʊɪŋ/
  • /ˈfɒləɪn/
  • US /ˈfɑloʊɪŋ/

Following has 3 syllables, split fol·low·ing in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-following.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of following

  • followings plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does following mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Coming next, either in sequence or in time.

    See the following section.

  2. 2

    About to be specified.

    The following words have no definition[…]

  3. 3

    Blowing in the direction of travel, as opposed to headwind; downwind.

    The following wind sped us on our way.

preposition

  1. 1

    proscribedAfter, subsequent to.

    Following the meeting, we all had a chat.

  2. 2

    In accordance with; as per.

    Following all relevant safety instructions, administer a dose of the corticosteroid.

noun

  1. 1

    A group of followers, attendants or admirers; an entourage.

    He had a loyal following.

  2. 2

    Vocation; business; profession.

  3. 3

    A thing or things to be mentioned immediately after.

    The following is a recommendation letter from the president.

  4. 4

    An account which is followed.

verb

  1. 1

    present participle and gerund of follow (a form of follow)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate following?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of following: foll.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Following in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsuivant (next in sequence or time), ci-après (about to be specified), favorable (wind blowing in the direction of travel), après, postérieurement à, à la suite de (subsequent to)
Germanfolgend, anschließend, nachstehend (next in sequence or time), nach (subsequent to), Anhänger, Anhängerschaft (a group of followers)
Portugueseseguinte (next in sequence or time)
Spanishsiguiente (next in sequence or time), próximo (about to be specified)

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 following come from?

By surface analysis, follow + -ing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after following