HIV
/ˌeɪtʃˌaɪˈviː/noun
HIV is spelled H-I-V: 3 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,407th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, HIV means “Initialism of human immunodeficiency virus” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in HIV?
| Letters | 3: H-I-V |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 15 times per million words; the 5,407th 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 HIV?
HIV appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,407th 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 HIV?
- /ˌeɪtʃˌaɪˈviː/
HIV 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)-Persent101-HIV.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What does HIV mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Initialism of human immunodeficiency virus.
- 2
The infection caused by HIV.
- 3
Initialism of header isolation valve.
- 4
Initialism of helium isolation valve.
- 5
Initialism of hydraulic isolation valve.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
HIV in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense human immunodeficiency virus:
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.