spying
/ˈspaɪ.ɪŋ/noun, verb
spying is spelled S-P-Y-I-N-G: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 4.5 times per million words in written English, the 12,045th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, spying means “espionage; the act of secretly gathering information” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of spying is spyings.
How many letters and syllables are in spying?
| Letters | 6: S-P-Y-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.5 times per million words; the 12,045th 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 spying?
Spying appears 4.5 times per million words in written English, the 12,045th 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 spying?
- /ˈspaɪ.ɪŋ/
Spying 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: En-us-spying.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of spying
- spyings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does spying mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
espionage; the act of secretly gathering information
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of spy
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does spying come from?
Inherited from Middle English spyinge, spiyng, spyeng, equivalent to spy + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).