-ing

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪŋ/, /ɪn/, /É™n/
• Western US and Canada IPA: /iːn/, /iːŋ/
• US Homophones: een some dialects

• UK Homophones: ink some dialects

Alternative forms

• -in’, -in colloquial

From Middle English -ing, from Old English -ing, -ung ("-ing", suffix forming nouns from verbs.), from Proto-Germanic *-ingō, *-ungō, from Proto-Indo-European *-enkw-. Cognate with West Frisian -ing ("-ing"), Dutch -ing ("-ing"), Low German -ing ("-ing"), German -ung ("-ing"), Swedish -ing ("-ing"), Icelandic -ing ("-ing").

Full definition of -ing

Suffix

1. Used to form gerunds, a type of verbal nouns, from verbs.the making of the film
2. Used to form uncountable nouns from various parts of speech denoting materials or systems of objects considered collectively.Roofing is a material that covers a roof.Piping is a system of pipes considered collectively.
3. Used to form nouns of the action or the procedure of a verb; usually identical with meaning 1. in the English language or expressed with -tion insteadThe forging of the sword took hours. - where forging denotes a planned procedure of work rather than a specific physical action

Synonyms

• (activity) -ery
• (collection) -age, -ery

From Middle English -inge, -ynge, alteration of earlier -inde, -ende, -and (see -and), from Old English -ende, from Proto-Germanic *-andz, from Proto-Indo-European *-nt-. Cognate with Dutch -end, German -end, Gothic -𐌰𐌽𐌳 (-and), Latin -ans, -ant-, Ancient Greek -ον (-on), Sanskrit -अन्त् (-ant). More at -and.

Suffix

1. Used to form present participles of verbs.Rolling stones gather no moss.You are making a mess.
• a. 2001 Brian Hall, “Beej's Guide to Network Programming”, “Using Internet Sockets”If you are connect()ing to a remote machine...you can simply call connect(), it'll check to see if the socket is unworthy, and will bind() it to an unused local port if necessary.

Derived terms

Middle English -ing, from Old English -ing, from Proto-Germanic *-ingaz. Akin to Old Norse -ingr, Gothic -𐌹𐌲𐌲𐍃 (-iggs).

Suffix

1. Forming derivative nouns (originally masculine), with the sense ‘son of, belonging to’, as patronymics or diminutives.Browning, Channing, Ewingbuntingshillingfarthing
2. Having a specifed quality, characteristic, or nature; of the kind ofsweetingwhitinggelding

Derived terms