phishing
/ˈfɪʃɪŋ/noun, verb
phishing is spelled P-H-I-S-H-I-N-G: 8 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,789th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, phishing means “The malicious act of keeping a false website or sending a false e-mail with the intent of masquerading as a trustworthy entity in order to acquire…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in phishing?
| Letters | 8: P-H-I-S-H-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 30,789th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like |
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 phishing?
Phishing appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,789th 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 phishing?
- /ˈfɪʃɪŋ/
Phishing 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-phishing.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with phishing
Sounds like: fishing (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What does phishing mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The malicious act of keeping a false website or sending a false e-mail with the intent of masquerading as a trustworthy entity in order to acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details.
Holonym: social engineering
- 2
The act of circumventing security with an alias.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of phish
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Phishing in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense malicious act:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | hameçonnage |
| German | Phishing |
| Portuguese | phishing |
| Spanish | phishing, fishin |
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 phishing come from?
Respelling of fishing (“trying to find”). In Usenet newsgroups, cracker and pirate groups used variant spellings of phish and warez (i.e. wares) to evade scans and filters by mainstream servers policing the ARPAnet/Internet. Compare other respelling slang like phat and phreak.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).