Standard Lemma guide

talking

noun · verb · 3 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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Received-Pronunciation: /ˈtɔːkɪŋ/
General-American: /ˈtɔkɪŋ/
General-American: /ˈtɔkɪn/
cot-caught-merger: /ˈtɑkɪŋ/
cot-caught-merger: /ˈtɑkɪn/
Northumbria: /ˈtɑːkɪn/
US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
rhymes with -ɔːkɪŋ
CMU ARPABET: T AO1 K IH0 NG Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

noun

Meaning 1

The action of the verb talk.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

1864–65, Anthony Trollope, Can You Forgive Her? He did not himself care for the loose little talkings, half flat and half sharp, of men when they meet together in idleness.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

verb

Meaning 2

present participle and gerund of talk.

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 3

an exchange of ideas via conversation

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

let's have more work and less talk around here

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: talk

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: conversation

Narrower terms: cant, pious platitude, dialogue, dialog, duologue, heart-to-heart, shmooze, shop talk, wind, malarkey, malarky, idle words, jazz, nothingness, yak, yack, yakety-yak, chatter, cackle

History

Etymology

From Middle English talkynge. By surface analysis, talk + -ing.

From Middle English talkyng, talkynge. By surface analysis, talk + -ing.

Word forms

Inflections and variants

talkings — plural

Word family

Derived and related words

Derived: do the talking, finger-talking, talking blues, talking circle, talking trash, talmbout, trash talking, look who's talking, now you're talking, shit talking, talking book, talking clock, talking drum, talking drummer, talking head, talking point, talking shop, talking statue, talking-to, that's what I'm talking about, trash-talking

Related: talk

Spelling and sound

Hyphenation and homophones

Hyphenation: talk·ing

Semantic map

Other relationships

Hypernyms: conversation

Hyponyms: cant, pious platitude, dialogue, dialog, duologue, heart-to-heart, shmooze, shop talk, wind, malarkey, malarky, idle words, jazz, nothingness, yak, yack, yakety-yak, chatter, cackle

Sources

Where this information comes from

Wiktionary data was expanded into structured fields by Wiktextract. Matching Princeton WordNet definitions and semantic relationships, plus CMUdict ARPABET pronunciations, are merged into this same canonical word page.

Wiktionary text is credited to English Wiktionary contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The source entry and revision history URL, legal text, and the complete attribution and reuse instructions are collected on the site-wide Sources, credits & licenses page.

Changes made: Wiktionary markup was removed and matching senses were grouped; WordNet and CMUdict evidence was merged into the canonical word page. Source quotations with separate cited works are not republished.

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Real reading context

Examples

Meaning relationships

Meaning relationships

Examples

Meaning relationships

talking in complete knowledge articles