Standard Lemma guide

-ing

suffix · 6 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

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ɪŋ/
  • /ɪn/
  • /ən/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • /ɪŋɡ/ southern North West England, northern West Midlands, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire, Kent, without the NG-coalescence
  • Australian, Kent, dialectal: /ɪŋk/ without the NG-coalescence
  • Australian, Kent, dialectal: /ɪŋɡ/ without the NG-coalescence
  • homophone: ink
  • /in/ Upper Midwestern US, Northwestern US, Canada, pre-/ŋ/-tensing
  • /iŋ/ Upper Midwestern US, Northwestern US, Canada, pre-/ŋ/-tensing
  • homophone: een

1

suffix

Meaning 1

Used to form nouns or noun-like words (or elements of noun phrases) from verbs, denoting the act of doing something, an action, or the embodiment of an action.

As true nouns.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: morpheme

Examples

  • My hearing is not good.
  • I have had several meetings with him.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

suffix

Meaning 2

Used to form nouns or noun-like words (or elements of noun phrases) from verbs, denoting the act of doing something, an action, or the embodiment of an action.

As gerunds.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: morpheme

Examples

  • Smoking marijuana cigarettes daily is bad for your health.
  • She has a habit of sleeping late.
  • I like meeting people.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

suffix

Meaning 3

Used to form nouns denoting materials or systems of objects which are used or employed in an action, or considered collectively.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: morpheme

Examples

  • Roofing is material that is used to roof.
  • Clothing is material with which one is clothed.
  • The piping is a system of pipes considered collectively.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

suffix

Meaning 4

Used to form present participles of verbs.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: morpheme

Examples

  • Rolling stones gather no moss.
  • My new cabin, which is going to look over the lake, is getting a brand new roof this winter.
  • I wondered what time the play was starting.
  • Anybody touching this wire will get a deadly shock.
  • When it occurred, I was flying to New York a great deal.
  • We were boogieing from midnight until three o’clock in the morning.
  • It's a very creative job, allowing us a great deal of latitude.
  • Refusing to apologise, I stormed out the room. I'm regretting doing such a stupid thing already.
  • I was listening to music while I was driving here.
  • 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.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

suffix

Meaning 5

Forming derivative nouns (originally masculine), with the sense ‘son of, belonging to’, as in placenames, patronymics or diminutives; -ite.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic, morpheme

Examples

  • Ealing, Dorking, Reading, Worthing
  • Browning, Channing, Ewing
  • Middle English *bunt + -ing → bunting
  • skill + -ing → shilling
  • fourth + -ing → farthing

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

suffix

Meaning 6

Forming nouns having a specified quality, characteristic, or nature; of the kind of

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: morpheme

Examples

  • sweet + -ing → sweeting
  • white + -ing → whiting
  • geld + -ing → gelding

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English -ing, -yng, -ynge, from Old English -ing, -ung (“-ing”, suffix forming nouns from verbs), from Proto-West Germanic *-ingu, *-ungu, from Proto-Germanic *-ingō, *-ungō (“-ing”). Cognates Cognate with Scots -in, -in', -ing (“-ing”), Yola -een (“-ing”), Saterland Frisian -enge (“-ing”), Dutch -ing (“-ing”), German and Luxembourgish -ung (“-ing”), Danish -ing, -ning (“-ing”), Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish -ing (“-ing”), French -ange (“-ing”). Unrelated to Brahui -اِنْگ (-iṅg, “a suffix used to form infinitive or verbal noun from the base verb; -ing”).

From Middle English -inge, -ynge, alteration of earlier -inde, -ende, -and (see -and), from Old English -ende (present participle ending), from Proto-West Germanic *-andī, from Proto-Germanic *-andz (present participle ending), from Proto-Indo-European *-onts. Cognate with West Frisian -end, Dutch -end, Afrikaans -ende, German -end, Low German -end, Danish -ende, Swedish -ande, Icelandic -andi, Gothic -𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍃 (-ands), -𐍉𐌽𐌳𐍃 (-ōnds), Latin -ans, -ant-, Ancient Greek -ων (-ōn), Sanskrit -अन्त् (-ant), Polish -ący, -ąc, Czech -oucí, Ukrainian -учий (-učyj), Serbo-Croatian -ući/-ући. More at -and.

From Middle English -ynge, from Old English -ing, from Proto-West Germanic *-ing, from Proto-Germanic *-ingaz. Akin to Old Norse -ingr.

Across languages

Translations

144 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: -ant — to form gerunds
  • Catalan: -ent — to form gerunds
  • Catalan: -int — to form gerunds
  • Danish: -ing — to form gerunds
  • Dutch: -ing — to form gerunds
  • Esperanto: -ado — to form gerunds
  • Faroese: -ing — to form gerunds
  • Finnish: -minen — to form gerunds
  • Finnish: -nti — to form gerunds
  • French: -age — to form gerunds
  • Galician: -ando — to form gerunds
  • Galician: -endo — to form gerunds
  • Galician: -indo — to form gerunds
  • Icelandic: -ing — to form gerunds
  • Interlingua: -ion — to form gerunds
  • Interlingua: -mento — to form gerunds
  • Interlingua: -ar — to form gerunds
  • Interlingua: -er — to form gerunds
  • Interlingua: -ir — to form gerunds
  • Italian: -ando — to form gerunds
  • Italian: -endo — to form gerunds
  • Japanese: -の (-no) — to form gerunds
  • Japanese: -こと (-koto) — to form gerunds
  • Khmer: ការ (kaa) — to form gerunds
  • Malay: peng--an — to form gerunds
  • Norwegian: -ing — to form gerunds
  • Nǀuu: -ki — to form gerunds
  • Old Norse: -ing — to form gerunds
  • Persian: ـش — to form gerunds
  • Polish: -anie — to form gerunds
  • Polish: -cie — to form gerunds
  • Portuguese: -ando — to form gerunds
  • Portuguese: -endo — to form gerunds
  • Portuguese: -indo — to form gerunds
  • Romanian: -ând — to form gerunds
  • Romanian: -ind — to form gerunds
  • Spanish: -ando — to form gerunds
  • Spanish: -iendo — to form gerunds
  • Tamil: -அல் (-al) — to form gerunds
  • Thai: การ- (gaan-) — to form gerunds
  • Thai: ความ- (kwaam-) — to form gerunds
  • Turkish: -yor — to form gerunds
  • Turkish: -mekte — to form gerunds
  • Turkish: -makta — to form gerunds
  • Danish: -ing — act of doing something
  • Dutch: -ing — act of doing something
  • Faroese: -ing — act of doing something
  • French: -age — act of doing something
  • French: -tion — act of doing something
  • French: -ment — act of doing something
  • German: -ung — act of doing something
  • Italian: -zione (-azione f, -uzione f) — act of doing something
  • Italian: -mento — act of doing something
  • Italian: -aggio — act of doing something
  • Low German: -d — act of doing something
  • Low German: -ung — act of doing something
  • Low German: -en — act of doing something
  • Low German: -inge — act of doing something
  • Low German: -ing — act of doing something
  • Low German: -unge — act of doing something
  • Low German: -ung — act of doing something
  • Middle Low German: -t — act of doing something
  • Middle Low German: -inge — act of doing something
  • Norwegian Bokmål: -ing — act of doing something
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: -ing — act of doing something
  • Old Norse: -ing — act of doing something
  • Polish: -nie — act of doing something
  • Polish: -cie — act of doing something
  • Romanian: -re — act of doing something
  • Russian: -а́ние (-ánije) — act of doing something
  • Russian: -е́ние (-énije) — act of doing something
  • Russian: -о́вка (-óvka) — act of doing something
  • Russian: -ля (-lja) — act of doing something
  • Swedish: -ing — act of doing something
  • Yiddish: ־ונג (-ung) — act of doing something
  • Dutch: -werk — materials, systems of objects
  • Dutch: -systeem — materials, systems of objects
  • Faroese: -ing — materials, systems of objects
  • Italian: -tura — materials, systems of objects
  • Malay: -an — materials, systems of objects
  • Old Norse: -ing — materials, systems of objects
  • Belizean Creole: di — to form present participles
  • Chinese Cantonese: 緊 /紧 (gan2) — to form present participles
  • Chinese Cantonese: 住 (zyu6) — to form present participles
  • Chinese Mandarin: 著 — to form present participles
  • Chinese Mandarin: 着 (zhe) — to form present participles
  • Chinese Mandarin: 正在 (zhèngzài) — to form present participles
  • Danish: -ende — to form present participles
  • Dutch: -end — to form present participles
  • Esperanto: -anta — to form present participles
  • Estonian: -v — to form present participles
  • Faroese: -andi — to form present participles
  • Finnish: -va — to form present participles
  • Finnish: -vä — to form present participles
  • French: -ant — to form present participles
  • Galician: -ando — to form present participles
  • Galician: -endo — to form present participles
  • Galician: -indo — to form present participles
  • German: -end — to form present participles
  • Hungarian: -ó — to form present participles
  • Hungarian: -ő — to form present participles
  • Icelandic: -andi — to form present participles
  • Ido: -anta — to form present participles
  • Interlingua: -ante — to form present participles
  • Interlingua: -ente — to form present participles
  • Interlingua: -iente — to form present participles
  • Italian: -ante — to form present participles
  • Italian: -ente — to form present participles
  • Japanese: ている — to form present participles
  • Khmer: កំពុង (kɑmpuŋ) — to form present participles
  • Northern Kurdish: -er — to form present participles
  • Northern Kurdish: -ende — to form present participles
  • Northern Kurdish: -bar — to form present participles
  • Latin: -ens — to form present participles
  • Neapolitan: -anno — to form present participles
  • Neapolitan: -enno — to form present participles
  • Norwegian: -ende — to form present participles
  • Polish: -ący — to form present participles
  • Portuguese: -ando — to form present participles
  • Portuguese: -endo — to form present participles
  • Portuguese: -indo — to form present participles
  • Russian: -ающий (-ajuščij) — to form present participles
  • Russian: -ящий (-jaščij) — to form present participles
  • Russian: -ущий (-uščij) — to form present participles
  • Russian: -ющий (-juščij) — to form present participles
  • Russian: -ащий (-aščij) — to form present participles
  • Russian: -еющий (-ejuščij) — to form present participles
  • Russian: -ующий (-ujuščij) — to form present participles
  • Russian: -я́ющий (-jájuščij) — to form present participles
  • Russian: -щий (-ščij) — to form present participles
  • Spanish: -ando — to form present participles
  • Spanish: -iendo — to form present participles
  • Swedish: -ande — to form present participles
  • Swedish: -ende — to form present participles
  • Thai: กําลัง (gam-lang) — to form present participles
  • Turkish: -iyor — to form present participles
  • Turkish: -yor — to form present participles
  • Turkish: -uyor — to form present participles
  • Turkish: -ıyor — to form present participles
  • Turkish: -üyor — to form present participles
  • Turkish: -en — to form present participles
  • Turkish: -yen — to form present participles
  • Turkish: -an — to form present participles
  • Turkish: -yan — to form present participles