surprising
sur·pris·ing/sɚˈpɹaɪzɪŋ/adjective, noun, verb
surprising is spelled S-U-R-P-R-I-S-I-N-G, 3 syllables: sur·pris·ing. The wrong spelling people search most is suprising: about 140 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Surprising is an adjective meaning “Causing surprise”.
How many letters and syllables are in surprising?
| Letters | 10: S-U-R-P-R-I-S-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: sur·pris·ing |
| In writing | 19 times per million words; the 4,444th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, suprising, about 140 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell surprising?
Surprising is spelled S-U-R-P-R-I-S-I-N-G. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 3 in 10 of the searches for surprising in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is surprising?
Surprising appears 19 times per million words in written English, the 4,444th 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 surprising?
- UK /səˈpɹaɪzɪŋ/
- US /sɚˈpɹaɪzɪŋ/
- /səˈpɹaɪzɪŋ/
Surprising has 3 syllables, split sur·pris·ing in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-surprising.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of surprising
- more surprising comparative
- most surprising superlative
- surprisings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does surprising mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Causing surprise.
A surprising number of people attended the rally.
noun
- 1
A situation in which somebody is surprised.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of surprise
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Surprising in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense that is or are a surprise:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | surprenant, étonnant, surprenante, étonnante |
| German | überraschend |
| Portuguese | surpreendente |
| Spanish | sorprendente, sorpresivo |
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 surprising come from?
From surprise + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).