slinking

noun

"slinking" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“slinking” is uncommon English (frequency #90,997 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#90,997
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The act of one who slinks.

Corpus desk

Index EN-slinking · slinking · English

slinking · rank #90,997 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #90,997
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH slaty

Nearest frequency peer: slaty (-1 rank slots)

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.

Long-tail ranks near “slinking”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “slinking” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for slinking
PropertyValue
Headwordslinking
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#90,997
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “slinking” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).slinkingfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “slaty” (#90,996), “skipjack” (#90,994), “Smet” (#91,001). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “slinking” is #90,997. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

slinking is uncommon English at frequency #90,997 among 6,566 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The act of one who slinks.".

No misspelling variants are generated for slinking in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is slinking, spelled S-L-I-N-K-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    The act of one who slinks.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how slinking appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. [A]t midnight, after wanderings that were but slinkings away from cheerfulness and light, I slunk to my bed.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "slinking"?
"slinking" is spelled S-L-I-N-K-I-N-G.
What does "slinking" mean?
As a noun, "slinking" means: The act of one who slinks.
What language does "slinking" come from?
"slinking" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "slinking", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list