padding
/ˈpædɪŋ/noun, verb
padding is spelled P-A-D-D-I-N-G: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,965th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, padding means “Soft filling material used in cushions etc” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of padding is paddings.
How many letters and syllables are in padding?
| Letters | 7: P-A-D-D-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.5 times per million words; the 22,965th 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 padding?
Padding appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,965th 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 padding?
- /ˈpædɪŋ/
Padding 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)-Persent101-padding.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of padding
- paddings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does padding mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Soft filling material used in cushions etc.
- 2
Extra characters such as spaces added to a record to fill it out to a fixed length.
- 3
Extraneous text added to a message for the purpose of concealing its beginning, ending, or length.
- 4
Anything of little value used to fill up space.
That magazine is mostly advertisements; the rest is padding.
- 5
The process of mordanting a fabric.
- 6
A diaper.
- 7
obsoleteRobbing on a highway.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of pad
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Padding in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | rembourrage |
| German | Füllung |
| Portuguese | acolchoamento |
| Spanish | acolchado , floro, floreo |
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 padding come from?
From pad + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).