discouraging

Questions about discouraging

What does discouraging mean?

discouraging means "depriving of confidence or hope or enthusiasm and hence often deterring action". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in discouraging?

discouraging has 4 syllables: di-scou-ra-ging. The stress falls on "scou". In IPA it is /dɪˈskɝədʒɪŋ/.

What is the opposite of discouraging?

The recorded antonyms are encouraging.

Is discouraging a common word?

discouraging is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.