petting

Other forms of petting

plural

pettings·

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 petting

What does petting mean?

petting means "affectionate play (or foreplay without contact with the genital organs)".

How many syllables are in petting?

petting has 2 syllables: pet-ting. The stress falls on "pet". In IPA it is /ˈpɛtɪŋ/.

What is another word for petting?

Close synonyms include caressing, cuddling, fondling, hugging, kissing. 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 petting a common word?

petting 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.