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whiting

/ˈwaɪtɪŋ/noun, verb

whiting is spelled W-H-I-T-I-N-G: 7 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.2 times per million words in written English, the 26,092nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, whiting means “A fine white chalk used in paints, putty, whitewash etc” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of whiting is whitings.

How many letters and syllables are in whiting?

Letters7: W-H-I-T-I-N-G
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.2 times per million words; the 26,092nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 whiting?

Whiting appears 1.2 times per million words in written English, the 26,092nd 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 whiting?

  • /ˈwaɪtɪŋ/
  • /ˈʍaɪtɪŋ/

Whiting 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: En-au-whiting.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of whiting

  • whitings plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does whiting mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A fine white chalk used in paints, putty, whitewash etc.

  2. 2

    A fish, Merlangius merlangus (family Gadidae), similar to cod, found in the North Atlantic; English whiting (US).

  3. 3

    USAny of several marine fish found in North American coastal waters, including hakes (genus Merluccius), especially Merluccius bilinearis (silver hake).

  4. 4

    CanadaAlaska pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus, syn. Theragra chalcogramma).

  5. 5

    A blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou), a marine fish of the Northern Hemisphere.

  6. 6

    A southern blue whiting (Micromesistius australis), a marine fish of the Southern Hemisphere.

  7. 7

    in family Sillaginidae, smelt-whitings, inhabiting Indo-Pacific marine coasts, many species of which are commercially important whitefish.

  8. 8

    in family Sciaenidae, Menticirrhus americanus (Carolina whiting, king whiting, southern kingcroaker, and southern kingfish) found along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States.

verb

  1. 1

    present participle and gerund of white (a form of white)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Whiting in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanSchlämmkreide (fine white chalk), Wittling, Merlan (fish, Merlangius merlangus)
Frenchmerlan (fish, Merlangius merlangus)
Portuguesebadejo, pescada (fish, Merlangius merlangus)
Spanishmerlán (fish, Merlangius merlangus)

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 whiting come from?

From white + -ing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after whiting