suffering

suf·fer·ing/ˈsʌfəɹɪŋ/adjective, noun, verb

suffering is spelled S-U-F-F-E-R-I-N-G: 9 letters and 3 syllables (suf·fer·ing). It appears 34 times per million words in written English, the 2,831st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, suffering means “Experiencing pain; characterized by suffering” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in suffering?

Letters	9: S-U-F-F-E-R-I-N-G
Syllables	3: suf·fer·ing
In writing	34 times per million words; the 2,831st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none 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 suffering?

Suffering appears 34 times per million words in written English, the 2,831st most frequent word form in the list.

suffering0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce suffering?

/ˈsʌfəɹɪŋ/
/ˈsʌfɹɪŋ/

Suffering has 3 syllables, split suf·fer·ing in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-suffering.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of suffering

sufferings plural

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

What does suffering mean?

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

adjective

1
Experiencing pain; characterized by suffering.

noun

1
The condition of someone who suffers; a state of pain or distress.

verb

1
present participle and gerund of suffer (a form of suffer)