scratching
/ˈskɹæt͡ʃɪŋ/noun, verb
scratching is spelled S-C-R-A-T-C-H-I-N-G: 10 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 3.6 times per million words in written English, the 13,695th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, scratching means “The act or sound of something being scratched” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of scratching is scratchings.
How many letters and syllables are in scratching?
| Letters | 10: S-C-R-A-T-C-H-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.6 times per million words; the 13,695th 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 scratching?
Scratching appears 3.6 times per million words in written English, the 13,695th 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 scratching?
- /ˈskɹæt͡ʃɪŋ/
Scratching 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Sapaa-scratching.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of scratching
- scratchings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does scratching mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The act or sound of something being scratched.
We heard further scratchings at the door as the dog whined to be let in.
- 2
A pork scratching.
- 3
Record scratching, a technique of starting and stopping a vinyl record from playing to produce music in hip hop.
- 4
UKA piece of deep-fried batter left over from frying fish, sometimes sold with chips.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of scratch
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).