sprinkling

1. 1.

   a small number (of something) dispersed haphazardly

   “the first scatterings of green”

   “a sprinkling of grey at his temples”

   Synonymsscattering

   Broadersmall indefinite quantity
2. 2.

   a light shower that falls in some locations and not others nearby

   Synonymsscatteringsprinkle

   Broadershower
3. 3.

   the act of sprinkling water in baptism (rare)

   Synonymsaspersion

   Broaderbaptism
4. 4.

   the act of sprinkling or splashing water

   “baptized with a sprinkling of holy water”

   “a sparge of warm water over the malt”

   Synonymssprinklesparge

   Broaderwatering

Other forms of sprinkling

plural

sprinklings·

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 sprinkling

What does sprinkling mean?

sprinkling means "a small number (of something) dispersed haphazardly". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in sprinkling?

sprinkling has 2 syllables: sprin-kling. The stress falls on "sprin". In IPA it is /ˈspɹɪŋklɪŋ/.

What is another word for sprinkling?

Close synonyms include scattering, scattering, sprinkle, aspersion, sprinkle. 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 sprinkling a common word?

sprinkling 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.