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going

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going¹

  • /ˈɡəʊ.ɪŋ/ UK
  • /ˈɡuː.ɪŋ/ [ˈɡʊw.ɪŋɡ] UK, West Midlands
  • /ˈɡæn.ɪn/ Northumbria, UK
  • /ɡaːn/ UK, sometimes
  • [ˈɡʌo̞ŋ]
  • /ˈɡoʊ.ɪŋ/ US
  • /ˈɡɔɪŋ/ US

Rhymes with -əʊɪŋ

Where it comes from

Verb form from Middle English goinge, goynge, gayng, variants of gonde, goonde, gaand, from Old English gānde, from Proto-Germanic *gēndz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *gēną, *gāną (“to go”), equivalent to go + -ing. Cognate with West Frisian geanend (“going”), Dutch gaand (“going”), German gehend (“going”), Danish gående (“going”), Swedish gående (“going”).

Noun and adjective from Middle English going, goyng, gaing, gayng, equivalent to go + -ing. Compare German Gehung, Old English gang (“a going”). More at gang.

verb

  1. gerund, participle, present present participle and gerund of go I'm afraid I must be going.
  2. in compounds Attending or visiting (a stated event, place, etc.) habitually or regularly. theatre-going, church-going, movie-going

noun goings

  1. countable, uncountable A departure. Māna-Yood-Sushāī was before the beginning of the gods, and shall be after their going. […] After the going of the gods there will be no small worlds nor big.
  2. countable, uncountable The suitability of ground for riding, walking etc. The going was very difficult over the ice.
  3. countable, uncountable Progress. We made good going for a while, but then we came to the price.
  4. countable, figuratively, uncountable Conditions for advancing in any way. Not only were the streets not paved with gold, but the going was difficult for an immigrant.
  5. countable, in plural, uncountable Course of life; behaviour; doings; ways. His eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings.
  6. countable, uncountable, in the phrase "the going of" The whereabouts (of something). I can't find my sunglasses; you haven't seen the going of them, have you?
  7. countable, uncountable The horizontal distance between the front of one step in a flight of stairs and the front of the next. Each step had a rise of 170 mm and a going of 250 mm.

adjective

  1. not comparable Likely to continue; viable. He didn't want to make an unsecured loan to the business because it didn't look like a going concern.
  2. not comparable Current, prevailing. The going rate for manual snow-shoveling is $25 an hour.
  3. especially, not comparable, after a noun phrase with a superlative Available. He has the easiest job going.

Going²

proper noun Goings

  1. A surname.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: active, passing, going away, departure, exit, release, expiration, loss, sledding, leaving, attending, functioning, doing, entering, getting, visiting

Translations

Every language

noun departure

हिन्दीव्रजन vrajan

noun progress

हिन्दीचालू cālū
DeutschFortschritt

noun conditions for advancing

DeutschWeiterkommen

adj current, prevailing

Deutschgeltend

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Cite this
MLA

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

APA

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

Chicago

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

BibTeX
@misc{going_2026,
  title = {going},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/going},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}