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ing

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ing¹

  • /ɪŋ/ US, UK

Rhymes with -ɪŋ

Where it comes from

From Middle English ing, ynge, enge, from Old English ing, *eng (“a meadow; ing”), from Proto-Germanic *angijō (“meadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂énkos (“a bend; curve; bowl; hollow; dell; glen”), from *h₂enk- (“to bend; curve; bow”). Cognate with Scots eng (“ing; meadow”), Dutch eng (“pasture; farmland”), Danish eng (“meadow”), Swedish äng (“meadow; field”), Norwegian eng (“meadow”), Faroese ong (“grassland; meadow; pasture”), Icelandic eng (“a meadow”), Icelandic engi (“a meadow; meadowland”).

noun ings

  1. A meadow, especially a low meadow near a river; water meadow. Ings, glens, and fens of the Highlands.

ing²

  • /ɪŋ/ US, UK

Rhymes with -ɪŋ

Where it comes from

From Pitman em and en, which it is related to phonetically and graphically, and the sound it represents. The change in vowel probably reflects the familiar suffix -ing.

noun ings

  1. The letter for the ng sound /ŋ/ in Pitman shorthand.

Ing³

proper noun

  1. A surname

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: drinking, morn, inc, dra, eng, hav, ant, non-governmental, paris, britt, barings, dipl, noth, strik, action, activity

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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}
}