Viking

How to spell viking

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce viking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does viking mean?

1. nounA Scandinavian seafarer, raider, or trader of the medieval period, roughly the 8th to 11th centuries.

Viking in a sentence

• The museum displayed a reconstructed viking longship from a coastal dig.

• Each viking would set out from a sheltered inlet before a long raid.

Where does viking come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word comes from the Old Norse vikingr, the name given to the Scandinavian seafarers who raided and traded across northern Europe between roughly the 8th and 11th centuries. The most widely accepted explanation links it to the Old Norse noun vik, meaning a creek, inlet, or bay, so a vikingr was literally someone who lurked in or set out from the coastal inlets; another suggestion connects it to vika, a stretch of rowing between rest stops, which would frame the word around a sea journey. The form survived in Old English as wicing, used for a pirate, but it largely faded from the language for centuries. The modern word was effectively revived in English in the early 1800s, partly through the growing Romantic interest in Norse sagas and history. Because the modern spelling settled on a single k and a hard opening sound, the main trap is simply remembering it is not spelled with a double consonant or a ph.

How the word is built

• vík (Old Norse: creek, inlet, bay)
• -ing (one belonging to or associated with)