clowning

Other forms of clowning

plural

clownings·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about clowning

What does clowning mean?

clowning means "acting like a clown or buffoon". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in clowning?

clowning has 2 syllables: clow-ning. The stress falls on "clow". In IPA it is /ˈklaʊnɪŋ/.

What is another word for clowning?

Close synonyms include buffoonery, japery, frivolity, harlequinade, prank. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is clowning a common word?

clowning is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.