howling
/ˈhaʊlɪŋ/noun, adjective, verb
howling is spelled H-O-W-L-I-N-G: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,629th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, howling means “The act of producing howls” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of howling is howlings.
How many letters and syllables are in howling?
| Letters | 7: H-O-W-L-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.8 times per million words; the 20,629th 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 howling?
Howling appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,629th 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 howling?
- /ˈhaʊlɪŋ/
Howling 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-AnotherFriendlyHuman-howling.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of howling
- howlings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does howling mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act of producing howls.
The howling of wolves is haunting at night.
adjective
- 1
That howls.
howling wind
- 2
That causes one to howl or feel like howling; deeply distressing.
- 3
colloquialUsed as an intensifier
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of howl
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Howling in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense act of producing howls:
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 howling come from?
From Middle English howlynge, howelynge, equivalent to howl + -ing (gerund suffix).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).