longing
/ˈlɔːŋɪŋ/noun, verb
longing is spelled L-O-N-G-I-N-G: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,928th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, longing means “An earnest and deep, not greatly passionate, but rather melancholic desire” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of longing is longings.
How many letters and syllables are in longing?
| Letters | 7: L-O-N-G-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.2 times per million words; the 14,928th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is longing?
Longing appears 3.2 times per million words in written English, the 14,928th 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 longing?
- UK /ˈlɒŋɪŋ/
- US /ˈlɔːŋɪŋ/
- /lɑŋɪŋ/
Longing 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: En-us-longing.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with longing?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as longing from its last stressed vowel (/ɔŋɪŋ/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of longing
- longings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does longing mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An earnest and deep, not greatly passionate, but rather melancholic desire.
- 2
The buying of a financial instrument with the expectation that its value will rise.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of long
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Longing in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense melancholic desire:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | nostalgie |
| German | Sehnsucht, Sehnen, Verlangen |
| Portuguese | saudade f for something absent only |
| Spanish | añoranza, anhelo |
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 longing come from?
From Middle English longinge, langynge, from Old English longung, langung (“longing, desire”), from Proto-Germanic *langungō, gerund of Proto-Germanic *langōną (“to desire, long for”), equivalent to long + -ing (gerund ending).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).