tooltip
tool·tip/ˈtu(ː)l.tɪp/noun, verb
tooltip is spelled T-O-O-L-T-I-P: 7 letters and 2 syllables (tool·tip). It appears about once in every 8 million words in written English, the 85,266th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, tooltip means “An element of a graphical user interface in the form of a box of text that appears when a cursor is made to hover over an item; normally used to…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of tooltip is tooltips.
How many letters and syllables are in tooltip?
| Letters | 7: T-O-O-L-T-I-P |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: tool·tip |
| In writing | about once in every 8 million words; the 85,266th 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 tooltip?
Tooltip appears about once in every 8 million words in written English, the 85,266th 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 tooltip?
- /ˈtu(ː)l.tɪp/
Tooltip has 2 syllables, split tool·tip in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Pvanp7-tooltip.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of tooltip
- tooltips plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- tooltipping participle, present
- tooltipped participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does tooltip mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An element of a graphical user interface in the form of a box of text that appears when a cursor is made to hover over an item; normally used to explain the function of the item.
verb
- 1
rareTo add a tooltip to a user interface element.
- 2
rareTo cause a tooltip to appear by hovering over a UI element.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Tooltip in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense an element of a graphical user interface:
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 tooltip come from?
From tool + tip, originally used with toolbars to provide a tip or hint as to what function each graphical icon represented. The term was introduced as ToolTip by Microsoft in the 1990s.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).