surfing
/ˈsɝfɪŋ/noun, verb
surfing is spelled S-U-R-F-I-N-G: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 5.2 times per million words in written English, the 10,843rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, surfing means “The pastime or sport of riding surf on a surfboard” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of surfing is surfings.
How many letters and syllables are in surfing?
| Letters | 7: S-U-R-F-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 5.2 times per million words; the 10,843rd 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 surfing?
Surfing appears 5.2 times per million words in written English, the 10,843rd 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 surfing?
- US /ˈsɝfɪŋ/
Surfing 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Persent101-surfing.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of surfing
- surfings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does surfing mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The pastime or sport of riding surf on a surfboard.
- 2
The activity of browsing the Internet.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of surf
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Surfing in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense sport:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | surf |
| German | Wellenreiten, Surfen |
| Portuguese | surfe, surf |
| Spanish | surf, surfing, tabla hawaiana |
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 surfing come from?
From surf + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).