icing
/ˈaɪsɪŋ/noun, verb
icing is spelled I-C-I-N-G: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 3.1 times per million words in written English, the 15,146th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, icing means “A sweet, often creamy and thick glaze made primarily of sugar, often enriched with ingredients like butter, egg whites, or flavorings, typically used…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of icing is icings.
How many letters and syllables are in icing?
| Letters | 5: I-C-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.1 times per million words; the 15,146th 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 icing?
Icing appears 3.1 times per million words in written English, the 15,146th 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 icing?
- /ˈaɪsɪŋ/
Icing 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)-Persent101-icing.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of icing
- icings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does icing mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A sweet, often creamy and thick glaze made primarily of sugar, often enriched with ingredients like butter, egg whites, or flavorings, typically used for baked goods.
- 2
A minor violation of ice hockey rules, occurring when a player shoots the puck from his/her side of the red line so that it crosses the goal line on the opponent's side. A team playing short-handed is not penalized for this.
- 3
The process of forming a layer of ice on a surface.
- 4
Conditions conducive to the formation of ice on aircraft surfaces.
The Cessna pilots reported that moderate icing was present between 13,000 and 4,000 feet in the cloud layers.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of ice
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Icing in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | glaçage |
| German | Zuckerguss, Glasur , Vereisung |
| Portuguese | glacê, glace |
| Spanish | glaseado, alcorza, lustre |
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 icing come from?
Gerund of the verb to ice.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).