Skip to main content
PlainSpell

shipping

ship·ping/ˈʃɪpɪŋ/noun, verb

shipping is spelled S-H-I-P-P-I-N-G: 8 letters and 2 syllables (ship·ping). It appears 33 times per million words in written English, the 2,888th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, shipping means “The transportation of goods” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of shipping is shippings.

How many letters and syllables are in shipping?

Letters8: S-H-I-P-P-I-N-G
Syllables2: ship·ping
In writing33 times per million words; the 2,888th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is shipping?

Shipping appears 33 times per million words in written English, the 2,888th 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 shipping?

  • /ˈʃɪpɪŋ/
  • /ˈʃɪpiŋ/

Shipping has 2 syllables, split ship·ping in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-shipping.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of shipping

  • shippings plural

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

What does shipping mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The transportation of goods.

  2. 2

    The body of ships belonging to one nation, port or industry; ships collectively.

  3. 3

    Passage or transport on a ship.

  4. 4

    The cost of sending an item or package using postal or carrier services.

    The shipping is included in the quoted price.

  5. 5

    Navigation.

  6. 6

    slangThe desire by followers of a fandom for two or more people, either real-life people or fictional characters, to be in a romantic or sexual relationship.

verb

  1. 1

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

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

How do you abbreviate shipping?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of shipping: shpg..

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

Shipping in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchexpédition, envoi (transportation of goods), frais de port, frais de transport, transport, frais de livraison (cost of sending goods)
GermanSchifffahrt (transportation of goods), Versandkosten, Transportkosten (cost of sending goods)
Portugueseremessa, transporte, envio (transportation of goods), taxas de envio (cost of sending goods), frota (body of ships belonging to one nation, port or…)
Spanishenvío, transporte (transportation of goods), gastos de envío, gastos de transporte (cost of sending goods)

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 shipping come from?

From Middle English schipping, schyppynge, from schippen, schipen (“to take ship, navigate”), from Old English scipian (“to take ship; put in order, equip, man a ship”), equivalent to ship + -ing.

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

What to look up after shipping