sailing
/ˈseɪ.lɪŋ/adjective, noun, verb
sailing is spelled S-A-I-L-I-N-G: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 9.8 times per million words in written English, the 7,224th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, sailing means “Travelling by ship” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in sailing?
| Letters | 7: S-A-I-L-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 9.8 times per million words; the 7,224th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is sailing?
Sailing appears 9.8 times per million words in written English, the 7,224th 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 sailing?
- /ˈseɪ.lɪŋ/
Sailing 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-sailing.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with sailing?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as sailing.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: aisling.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of sailing
- sailings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sailing mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Travelling by ship.
noun
- 1
Motion across a body of water in a craft powered by the wind, as a sport or otherwise.
- 2
Navigation; the skill needed to operate and navigate a vessel.
- 3
The time of departure from a port.
- 4
A scheduled voyage by a ferry or ship.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of sail
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sailing in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | segeln , Segeln |
| Spanish | velerista , navegación, navegación a vela, velerismo , náutica |
| French | navigation la voile, navigation à voile |
| Portuguese | navegação, vela |
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 sailing come from?
From Middle English saylinge, seilinge, variants of sailende, seilende; equivalent to sail + -ing. Cognate with Dutch zeilend (“sailing”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).