Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

footling

/ˈfuːt.lɪŋ/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: 1.39 in modern English

Syllables: footling
IPA: /ˈfuːt.lɪŋ/

12

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

1

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

trivial, silly and irritating.

verb

present participle and gerund of footle

noun

A fetus oriented so that, at birth, its foot or feet will emerge first. A type of breech birth.

Example Sentences

"He was explaining to her things about the air service. . . . "Isn't it rather dangerous work?" she asked. She felt it was a footling question even as she asked it."
"Only a couple of days ago I was compelled to take him off a case because his handling of it was so footling."
"For 28 footling days the 58-nation General Assembly had been debating the now-famous U.S. afterthought: to postpone partition and substitute a U.N. trusteeship for Palestine."
"They are electrically hauled, and travel at over 70 m.p.h. between stops, but they make five stops at footling little country towns and take two hours for the 98-mile run."
"“Why did you persist in writing hurlothrumbo romances of the footling sort favored by mooncalfs?”"
"In 1999 my fourth child (third daughter) made an unexpected footling breech presentation."

Etymology

From footle + -ing.

Regional Pronunciation

British English: /ˈfuːt.lɪŋ/

Inflected Forms

more footling (comparative) most footling (superlative) footlings (plural)

Synonyms

fiddling lilliputian little niggling piddling piffling petty picayune trivial

Questions

How do you pronounce footling?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈfuːt.lɪŋ/.
What does footling mean?: trivial, silly and irritating.
Where does footling come from?: From footle + -ing.

How to pronounce footling

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “footling”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈfuːt.lɪŋ/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “footling”.
Repeat and practice — Say “footling” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.