whaling
/ˈweɪlɪŋ/noun, verb
whaling is spelled W-H-A-L-I-N-G: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,629th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, whaling means “The practice of hunting whales” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of whaling is whalings.
How many letters and syllables are in whaling?
| Letters | 7: W-H-A-L-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.8 times per million words; the 20,629th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
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); 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 common is whaling?
Whaling appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,629th 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 whaling?
- /ˈweɪlɪŋ/
Whaling 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)-Vealhurl-whaling.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with whaling
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: wailing, waling (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of whaling
- whalings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does whaling mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The practice of hunting whales.
- 2
The practice of spotting whales.
- 3
informalA beating.
- 4
A form of highly personalized cyberattack that targets a senior business executive.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of whale
- 2
informalphysically beating.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Whaling in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense practice of hunting whales:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | chasse à la baleine |
| German | Walfang |
| Portuguese | baleação |
| Spanish | caza de ballenas |
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.