photocopying

noun

"photocopying" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“photocopying” is uncommon English (frequency #61,704 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#61,704
frequency rank, English
4,417
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The process by which photocopies are made.

Corpus desk

Index EN-photocopying · photocopying · English

photocopying · rank #61,704 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #61,704
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,417
  • PHOTO-FINISH Philomena

Nearest frequency peer: Philomena (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “photocopying”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “photocopying” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for photocopying
PropertyValue
Headwordphotocopying
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters12
Frequency rank#61,704
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “photocopying” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).photocopyingfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “Philomena” (#61,703), “Piaget” (#61,705), “pervy” (#61,701). Among 4,417 “P” headwords, “photocopying” is #61,704. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

photocopying is uncommon English at frequency #61,704 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The process by which photocopies are made.".

photocopying doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is photocopying, spelled P-H-O-T-O-C-O-P-Y-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    The process by which photocopies are made.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how photocopying appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The forms became almost illegible after multiple photocopyings.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "photocopying"?
"photocopying" is spelled P-H-O-T-O-C-O-P-Y-I-N-G.
What does "photocopying" mean?
As a noun, "photocopying" means: The process by which photocopies are made.
What language does "photocopying" come from?
"photocopying" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "photocopying", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list