-ing

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-ing¹

  • /ɪŋ/
  • /ɪn/
  • /ən/
  • /ɪŋɡ/
  • /ɪŋk/ Australia, Kent, dialectal
  • /ɪŋɡ/ Australia, Kent, dialectal
  • /in/
  • /iŋ/

Sounds like ink, een

Where it comes from

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”).

suffix -ings · -in' · -in · -ïng

  1. countable, morpheme, uncountable As true nouns. My hearing is not good.
  2. countable, morpheme, uncountable As gerunds. Smoking marijuana cigarettes daily is bad for your health.
  3. countable, morpheme, uncountable Used to form nouns denoting materials or systems of objects which are used or employed in an action, or considered collectively. Roofing is material that is used to roof.

Similar: -tion, -ment, -ery, -age

-ing²

  • /ɪŋ/
  • /ɪn/
  • /ən/
  • /ɪŋɡ/
  • /ɪŋk/ Australia, Kent, dialectal
  • /ɪŋɡ/ Australia, Kent, dialectal
  • /in/
  • /iŋ/

Sounds like ink, een

Where it comes from

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), Persian ـنده (-ande), Polish -ący, -ąc, Czech -oucí, Ukrainian -учий (-učyj), Serbo-Croatian -ući/-ући. More at -and.

suffix -in' · -in · -ïng

  1. morpheme Used to form present participles of verbs. Rolling stones gather no moss.

-ing³

  • /ɪŋ/
  • /ɪn/
  • /ən/
  • /ɪŋɡ/
  • /ɪŋk/ Australia, Kent, dialectal
  • /ɪŋɡ/ Australia, Kent, dialectal
  • /in/
  • /iŋ/

Sounds like ink, een

Where it comes from

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

suffix -in' · -in · -ïng

  1. idiomatic, morpheme Forming derivative nouns (originally masculine), with the sense ‘son of, belonging to’, as in placenames, patronymics or diminutives; -ite. Ealing, Dorking, Reading, Worthing
  2. morpheme Forming nouns having a specified quality, characteristic, or nature; of the kind of sweet + -ing → sweeting

Thesaurus

suffix

Similar: -tion, -ment, -ery, -age

Translations

Every language

suffix act of doing something

Français-age, -tion, -ment
Deutsch-ung
Italiano-zione (-azione f, -uzione f), -mento, -aggio
Română-re
Русский-а́ние -ánije, -е́ние -énije, -о́вка -óvka, -ля -lja

suffix to form gerunds

Español-ando, -iendo
日本語-の -no, -こと -koto
Português-ando, -endo, -indo
Français-age
Italiano-ando, -endo
Română-ând, -ind

suffix materials, systems of objects

Italiano-tura

suffix to form present participles

Español-ando, -yendo, estar que
日本語ている
中文著, 着 zhe, 正在 zhèngzài
Português-ando, -endo, -indo
Français-ant
Deutsch-end
Italiano-ante, -ente
Русский-ающий -ajuščij, -ящий -jaščij, -ущий -uščij, -ющий -juščij, -ащий -aščij, -еющий -ejuščij

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Cite this
MLA

"-ing." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/-ing. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

-ing. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/-ing

Chicago

"-ing." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/-ing.

BibTeX
@misc{ing_2026,
  title = {-ing},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/-ing},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}