spying

Other forms of spying

plural

spyings·

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 spying

What does spying mean?

spying means "keeping a secret or furtive watch". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in spying?

spying has 2 syllables: spy-ing. The stress falls on "spy". In IPA it is /ˈspaɪɪŋ/.

What is another word for spying?

Close synonyms include undercover work, detection, catching, espial, spotting. 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 spying a common word?

spying is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.