hijacking
/ˈhaɪˌdʒæ.kɪŋ/noun, verb
hijacking is spelled H-I-J-A-C-K-I-N-G. The wrong spelling people search most is hyjacking: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 18 of all searches for the word. Hijacking is a noun meaning “The act of one who hijacks (in any sense)”. The plural of hijacking is hijackings.
How many letters and syllables are in hijacking?
| Letters | 9: H-I-J-A-C-K-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words; the 25,367th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, hyjacking, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); 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 hijacking?
Hijacking is spelled H-I-J-A-C-K-I-N-G. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 18 of the searches for hijacking in either form.
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 hijacking?
Hijacking appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 25,367th 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 hijacking?
- /ˈhaɪˌdʒæ.kɪŋ/
Hijacking has 3 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-hijacking.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of hijacking
- hijackings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hijacking mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of one who hijacks (in any sense).
- 2
The instance of such an act; the seizure of a vehicle.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of hijack
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hijacking in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense act of one who hijacks:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | atraco, secuestración, secuestro, arrebatón, arrebatamiento |
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 hijacking come from?
From hijack + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).