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roleplaying

noun, verb

roleplaying is a noun meaning “Action in which a person takes on a role (as that of an actor) and acts out being that character” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-O-L-E-P-L-A-Y-I-N-G and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 1 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of roleplaying is roleplayings.

What does roleplaying mean?

noun

  1. 1

    Action in which a person takes on a role (as that of an actor) and acts out being that character.

verb

  1. 1

    present participle and gerund of roleplay (a form of roleplay)

noun

as rôleplaying
  1. 1

    datedDated form of roleplaying.

verb

as rôleplaying
  1. 1

    present participle and gerund of rôleplay (a form of rôleplay)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce roleplaying?

    Roleplaying 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).

    Forms of roleplaying

    • roleplayings plural
    • role playing
    • role-playing

    Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

    How common is roleplaying?

    Roleplaying appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th 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).

    Words people confuse with roleplaying

    Also written: role-playing (one word or two).

    Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

    Roleplaying in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

    In the sense action in which a person takes on a role:

    LanguageWords
    Frenchjeu de rôle
    Spanishinterpretación de roles, técnica de dramatización, simulación, juego de roles

    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 roleplaying come from?

    From role + playing.

    Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).