kettling
noun, verb
kettling is spelled K-E-T-T-L-I-N-G: 8 letters. It appears about once in every 35 million words in written English, the 180,281st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, kettling means “A crowd control technique, used by police, where a hostile group of protesters or rioters are surrounded and not allowed to disperse, sometimes with…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of kettling is kettlings.
How many letters and syllables are in kettling?
| Letters | 8: K-E-T-T-L-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 35 million words; the 180,281st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is kettling?
Kettling appears about once in every 35 million words in written English, the 180,281st 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).
Forms of kettling
- kettlings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does kettling mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A crowd control technique, used by police, where a hostile group of protesters or rioters are surrounded and not allowed to disperse, sometimes with the use of temporary fencing to corral and isolate portions of the group.
- 2
The situation where water gets trapped in the heat exchanger of a boiler (e.g. due to limescale build-up), resulting in knocking sounds as it turns into expanding steam.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of kettle
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Kettling in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense crowd control technique:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | nasse |
| German | Polizeikessel |
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.