petting
noun
Simple meaning
Stroking or gently patting an animal.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pehtingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɛtɪŋ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The act of stroking or gently patting an animal.
sex
The act of kissing, stroking, etc., a person in a sexual manner.
The act of indulging or treating as a favourite.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of stroking or gently patting an animal.
Used this way, petting is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- necking , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A lover who gently fondles and caresses the loved one.
Larceny of property having a value less than some amount (the amount varies by locale).
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A collection of docile animals for children to pet and feed.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.