self-killing

verb

"self-killing" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“self-killing” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - present participle and gerund of self-kill

Corpus desk

Index EN-self-killing · self-killing · English

self-killing · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for self-killing
PropertyValue
Headwordself-killing
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechVerb
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “self-killing” in English

self-killingfalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

self-killing is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "present participle and gerund of self-kill".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for self-killing, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From self-kill + -ing. The correct English form is self-killing, spelled S-E-L-F---K-I-L-L-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of self-kill

Etymology

From self-kill + -ing.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "self-killing"?
"self-killing" is spelled S-E-L-F---K-I-L-L-I-N-G.
What does "self-killing" mean?
As a verb, "self-killing" means: present participle and gerund of self-kill
What is the origin of the word "self-killing"?
From self-kill + -ing. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list