piddling
/ˈpɪdəlɪŋ/adjective, verb
piddling is spelled P-I-D-D-L-I-N-G: 8 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 109,062nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, piddling means “Insignificant, negligible, paltry, trivial, useless” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in piddling?
| Letters | 8: P-I-D-D-L-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 13 million words; the 109,062nd 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 piddling?
Piddling appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 109,062nd 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 piddling?
- /ˈpɪdəlɪŋ/
Piddling has 3 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)-Vealhurl-piddling.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What does piddling mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Insignificant, negligible, paltry, trivial, useless.
After all the work I'd done, he gave me a piddling amount of money.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of piddle
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).