running
/ˈɹʌnɪŋ/adjective, adverb, noun, preposition, verb
running is spelled R-U-N-N-I-N-G. The wrong spelling people search most is runnning: about 50 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 270 of all searches for the word. Running is an adjective meaning “Moving or advancing at a run”.
How many letters and syllables are in running?
| Letters | 7: R-U-N-N-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 170 times per million words; the 591st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, runnning, about 50 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell running?
Running is spelled R-U-N-N-I-N-G. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 149 of the searches for running in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is running?
Running appears 170 times per million words in written English, the 591st 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 running?
- US /ˈɹʌnɪŋ/
- /ˈɹʊnɪŋ/
- /ˈɹʊnɪŋɡ/
Running 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: En-us-running.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-running.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of running
- runnings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does running mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Moving or advancing at a run.
- 2
Of a horse, having a running gait; not a trotter or pacer.
- 3
Present, current.
running month
- 4
Flowing; easy; cursive.
running handwriting
- 5
Continuous; ongoing; keeping along step by step.
a running commentary, a running explanation, my running theory
- 6
Having a continuous design or pattern.
running bond; running ornament
- 7
Consecutive (much more commonly expressed by an adverb; see below).
He won the title for three running years.
- 8
Extending by a slender climbing or trailing stem.
a running vine
adverb
- 1
informalConsecutively; in a row.
Mom's strawberry jam won the blue ribbon at the Holland County Fair three years running.
noun
- 1
The action of the verb to run.
His running of the business leaves something to be desired.
- 2
The activity of running as a form of exercise, as a sport, or for any other reason.
Running is good exercise.
- 3
That which runs or flows; the quantity of a liquid which flows in a certain time or during a certain operation.
the first running of a still
- 4
The discharge from an ulcer or other sore.
- 5
colloquialThe act of running errands.
I'm gonna go out and do my running.
- 6
The dependence of measured value, typically a coupling constant, on the energy scale at which it is probed due to higher-order interaction terms and associated renormalization issues becoming relevant; metaphorically, the "running" of the measurement from its limiting macroscopic value.
preposition
- 1
colloquialApproaching; about; roughly.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of run
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Running in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | laufend , eiternd, nässend , Rennen, Laufen , Laufsport |
| French | course, course à pied , à la suite consécutivement de suite |
| Portuguese | correr , consecutivamente |
| Spanish | corrida, corrimiento, peregueta, pedestrismo , consecutivo |
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 running come from?
By surface analysis, run + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).