packing
/ˈpækɪŋ/noun, verb
packing is spelled P-A-C-K-I-N-G: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,456th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, packing means “The action of putting things together, especially of putting clothes into a suitcase for a journey” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of packing is packings.
How many letters and syllables are in packing?
| Letters | 7: P-A-C-K-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,456th 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 packing?
Packing appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,456th 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 packing?
- UK /ˈpakɪŋ/
- US /ˈpækɪŋ/
Packing 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)-Wodencafe-packing.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-packing.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of packing
- packings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does packing mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The action of putting things together, especially of putting clothes into a suitcase for a journey.
- 2
The spatial arrangement of objects, items or constituent parts.
- 3
The gathering of birds, animals etc. into a pack.
- 4
The forming of players into a scrum.
- 5
Material used to fill in the space around something, especially to make a piston etc. watertight or airtight.
- 6
Material used to wrap a product for sale etc.; packaging.
- 7
A fee charged to cover the costs of packaging.
- 8
Special material used to fill containers or vessels for certain chemically related applications.
Packing in a packed bed, or a column such as a distillation column or a chromatography column
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of pack
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Packing in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the action of putting things together, especially of putting clothes into a suit:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| Spanish | empaque, empacamiento |
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 packing come from?
From Middle English pakkynge; equivalent to pack (“verb and noun senses”) + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).