2 syllables: kill, ings. Stress on kill.
KIL-ingz
/ˈkɪlɪŋz/
killings is pronounced KIL-ingz (/ˈkɪlɪŋz/). It has two syllables (kill-ings), with the stress on "kill". Killings refers to the act of causing someone's death, typically as criminal homicide, or to multiple acts of killing in a given context. It is a plural noun or verb form depending on usage, but in most contexts it denotes the occurrence of fatalities. The term carries strong, grave connotations and is often used in legal, news, or criminological discourse.
Killings refers to the act of causing someone's death, typically as criminal homicide, or to multiple acts of killing in a given context. It is a plural noun or verb form depending on usage, but in most contexts it denotes the occurrence of fatalities. The term carries strong, grave connotations and is often used in legal, news, or criminological discourse.
"The killings were investigated by the district attorney's office."
"Several killings occurred during the territorial conflict last year."
"The documentary examined the social and political factors behind the killings."
Pronounce as /ˈkɪl.ɪŋz/. The primary stress is on the first syllable: KIL-. The /k/ is a hard voiceless velar plosive, /ɪ/ is a short near-close front vowel (as in 'kit'), the /l/ is a clear light L, the second syllable uses /ɪŋ/ with a short vowel and velar nasal /ŋ/, and the final /z/ is the voiced sibilant. In rapid speech you may hear a subtle reduction to /ˈkɪlɪŋz/ with a very light second /ɪ/.
Common mistakes include misplacing stress (saying kiLLINGS with stress on the second syllable), pronouncing the second syllable as /iː/ (as in ‘kill-eengs’), and truncating the final /z/ into a /s/ or not voicing it. To fix: keep primary stress on KIL-, ensure the second syllable uses a short /ɪ/ followed by the velar nasal /ŋ/, and finish with a voiced /z/. Practice with minimal pairs like ‘kill’ vs ‘killing’ to feel the extrapolated /ɪŋz/ sequence.
In US and UK accents, the initial /k/ and /ɪ/ are similar, but rhoticity in US may influence surrounding vowels in connected speech; the /ˈkɪl.ɪŋz/ form remains stable. Australian speakers tend to be non-rhotic but this word is not strongly rhoticized; the main difference is vowel quality and possible reduced vowel in connected speech, leading to /ˈkɪl.ɪŋz/ with a slightly shorter first syllable and a floated vowel in rapid speech. Intonation patterns may differ with sentence context.
The difficulty comes from the cluster /k/ + /ɪ/ + /l/ + /ɪŋ/ + /z/ in quick succession, plus a voiced final /z/ that can be devoiced in fast speech. The second syllable’s /ɪ/ is short and followed by /ŋ/, which can blur with a following /z/ in fluent speech. Maintaining the short, crisp /ɪ/ in both syllables and transitioning smoothly into the velar nasal /ŋ/ before the final /z/ requires precise timing and air control.
IS the final -s of 'killings' always pronounced as /z/ even when followed by a pause or r-controlled ending in rapid speech? Generally yes in careful pronunciation; in rapid speech, the /z/ can be devoiced to /s/ at the end of a sentence due to voicing degradation, but the underlying phoneme remains /z/. For clarity, keep the final sound as /z/ unless prosodic context calls for devoicing.
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- US: Pronounce /ˈkɪl.ɪŋz/ with rhoticity not strongly affecting these vowels; keep /ɪ/ short; final /z/ is voiced and often audibly visible in careful speech. - UK: Similar to US, but you may hear crisper /l/ and slightly less vowel length contrast; non-rhotic tendencies affect surrounding vowels in fast speech. - AU: Similar to UK; maintain the /ɪ/ in both syllables; final /z/ remains voiced; expect slightly more relaxed vowel duration in rapid conversations. IPA references: US /ˈkɪl.ɪŋz/, UK /ˈkɪl.ɪŋz/, AU /ˈkɪl.ɪŋz/.
The word killings derives from the verb kill, which traces to Old English cwellan, related to Dutch koelen and German kellen in some cognate forms, with Proto-Germanic roots *kwaljanan or *kviolent. The sense 'to cause death' appears early in the Middle English period, with kill used as a verb by the 13th century and as a noun for the act of killing appearing soon after. The plural -ings form emerges in English as a productive gerund noun suffix (-ing) associated with action or result, commonly used in legal and descriptive contexts (e.g., ‘five killings’). Over time, ‘killings’ has become a standard collocation in crime reporting and criminology to denote multiple incidents, shifting from a purely literal act to a unit of analysis within discourse on violence and policy. First known uses appear in manifold legal and narrative texts of the late medieval/early modern era, with modern prevalence rising in 19th-20th century journalism and statute language, stabilizing in contemporary usage as a neutral or descriptive term in crime reports, statistics, and policy discussions.
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Words that rhyme with "killings"
-al) sounds
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