spaying

noun

"spaying" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“spaying” is uncommon English (frequency #94,277 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#94,277
frequency rank, English
54,294
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The act or operation of neutering an animal; normally used in reference to performing the operation on a female.

Key facts for spaying
PropertyValue
Headwordspaying
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters7
Frequency rank#94,277
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “spaying” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). spaying lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

spaying is uncommon English at frequency #94,277 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The act or operation of neutering an animal; normally used in reference to performing the operation on a female.".

No misspelling variants are generated for spaying in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is spaying, spelled S-P-A-Y-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    The act or operation of neutering an animal; normally used in reference to performing the operation on a female.

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 "spaying"?
"spaying" is spelled S-P-A-Y-I-N-G.
What does "spaying" mean?
As a noun, "spaying" means: The act or operation of neutering an animal; normally used in reference to performing the operation on a female.
What language does "spaying" come from?
"spaying" 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.

Using “spaying”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is S-P-A-Y-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words

Other uncommon English words near this rank

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list