meaning
/ˈmi.nɪŋ/noun, adjective, verb
meaning is spelled M-E-A-N-I-N-G. The wrong spelling people search most is meaing: about 80 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 263 of all searches for the word. Meaning is a noun meaning “The denotation, referent, or idea connected with a word, expression, or symbol”. The plural of meaning is meanings.
How many letters and syllables are in meaning?
| Letters | 7: M-E-A-N-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 74 times per million words; the 1,427th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, meaing, about 80 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| 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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell meaning?
Meaning is spelled M-E-A-N-I-N-G. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 235 of the searches for meaning in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is meaning?
Meaning appears 74 times per million words in written English, the 1,427th 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 meaning?
- UK /ˈmiː.nɪŋ/
- US /ˈmi.nɪŋ/
- Australia /ˈmiː.nɪŋ/
Meaning 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-meaning.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with meaning?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as meaning from its last stressed vowel (/inɪŋ/):
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 meaning
- meanings plural
- more meaning comparative
- most meaning superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does meaning mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The denotation, referent, or idea connected with a word, expression, or symbol.
- 2
The connotation associated with a word, expression, or symbol.
- 3
The purpose, value, or significance (of something) beyond the fact of that thing's existence.
Near-synonyms: meaningfulness, point, purpose, significance, use
- 4
Intention.
adjective
- 1
Having a (specified) intention.
Well/ill meaning.
- 2
Expressing some intention or significance; meaningful.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of mean
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate meaning?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of meaning: mg.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Meaning in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | signification, sens |
| German | Bedeutung , Sinn |
| Portuguese | significado , sentido |
| Spanish | sentido, significado, significación , acepción |
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 meaning come from?
From Middle English mening, menyng, equivalent to mean + -ing. Cognate with Scots mening (“intent, purpose, sense, meaning”), West Frisian miening (“opinion, mind”), Dutch mening (“view, opinion, judgement”), German Meinung (“opinion, view, mind, idea”), Danish and Swedish mening (“meaning, sense, sentence, opinion”), Icelandic meining (“meaning”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).