thinking
think·ing/ˈθɪŋkɪŋ/noun, verb
thinking is spelled T-H-I-N-K-I-N-G, 2 syllables: think·ing. The wrong spelling people search most is thikning: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 345 of all searches for the word. Thinking is a noun meaning “The action or process of using one's mind to consider or reason about something”. The plural of thinking is thinkings.
How many letters and syllables are in thinking?
| Letters | 8: T-H-I-N-K-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: think·ing |
| In writing | 174 times per million words; the 576th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, thikning, about 10 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 thinking?
Thinking is spelled T-H-I-N-K-I-N-G. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 339 of the searches for thinking 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 thinking?
Thinking appears 174 times per million words in written English, the 576th 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 thinking?
- /ˈθɪŋkɪŋ/
Thinking has 2 syllables, split think·ing in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-thinking.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of thinking
- thinkings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does thinking mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The action or process of using one's mind to consider or reason about something.
- 2
A thought.
What is your thinking on this subject?
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of think
I'm thinking about inventing a new perpetual-motion machine.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Thinking in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense thinking, thought:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Ansicht, Denken |
| Spanish | pensamiento |
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 thinking come from?
From Middle English thinking, thynkynge, thenkyng, equivalent to think + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).