Standard Lemma guide

penning

name · noun · verb · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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/ˈpɛnɪŋ/
pin-pen-merger: /ˈpɪnɪŋ/
homophone: pinning (pin–pen merger)
rhymes with -ɛnɪŋ
CMU ARPABET: P EH1 N IH0 NG Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

name

Meaning 1

A surname.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

noun

Meaning 2

Writing; literary composition.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

the idle pennings of a poetic daydreamer

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

noun

Meaning 3

An old currency unit, the Swedish penning.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: historical

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

verb

Meaning 4

present participle and gerund of pen

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: form-of, gerund, participle, present

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

noun

Meaning 5

the act of creating written works

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

writing was a form of therapy for him
it was a matter of disputed authorship

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: writing, authorship, composition

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: verbal creation

Narrower terms: adoxography, drafting, dramatization, dramatisation, fabrication, fictionalization, fictionalisation, historiography, metrification, novelization, novelisation, redaction, lexicography, versification

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Word forms

Inflections and variants

pennings — plural
penningar — plural

Word family

Derived and related words

Derived: Penning gauge, Penning trap

Related: pen, write, compose, indite, write on, write of, write about, profile, paragraph, dash off, scratch off, knock off, toss off, fling off, rewrite, write copy, dramatize, dramatise, adopt, draft, outline, author, co-author, ghost, ghostwrite, annotate, footnote, reference, cite, write out, write up, script

Spelling and sound

Hyphenation and homophones

Homophones: pinning (pin–pen merger)

Semantic map

Other relationships

Hypernyms: verbal creation

Hyponyms: adoxography, drafting, dramatization, dramatisation, fabrication, fictionalization, fictionalisation, historiography, metrification, novelization, novelisation, redaction, lexicography, versification

Sources

Where this information comes from

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