homesickness
noun
homesickness is spelled H-O-M-E-S-I-C-K-N-E-S-S: 12 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 58,063rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, homesickness means “The characteristic of being homesick; a strong, sad feeling of missing one's home (and often left-behind loved ones, such as family and friends) when…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of homesickness is homesicknesses.
How many letters and syllables are in homesickness?
| Letters | 12: H-O-M-E-S-I-C-K-N-E-S-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 4 million words; the 58,063rd 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 homesickness?
Homesickness appears about once in every 4 million words in written English, the 58,063rd 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 homesickness?
- US
Homesickness 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)-Wodencafe-homesickness.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of homesickness
- homesicknesses plural
- home-sickness
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does homesickness mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The characteristic of being homesick; a strong, sad feeling of missing one's home (and often left-behind loved ones, such as family and friends) when physically away.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Homesickness in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense missing one's home or family:
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 homesickness come from?
Calque of German Heimweh (“homesickness”, literally “home-woe”), equivalent to home + sickness.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).