nictitating
/ˈnɪktɪteɪtɪŋ/adjective, verb
nictitating is an adjective meaning “winking, blinking” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled N-I-C-T-I-T-A-T-I-N-G, and it appears about once in every 32 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does nictitating mean?
adjective
- 1
winking, blinking
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of nictitate
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce nictitating?
- /ˈnɪktɪteɪtɪŋ/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of nictitating
- more nictitating comparative
- most nictitating superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is nictitating?
Nictitating appears about once in every 32 million words in written English, the 173,967th 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).
Nictitating in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense winking, blinking:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | nictitant, clignotant |
| Spanish | nictitante |
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 nictitating come from?
From the past participle stem of Latin nictitō, frequentative form of nictō (“to wink”) (see English nictate).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).