Accepting

How to spell accepting

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce accepting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does accepting mean?

1. verbReceiving or agreeing to something that is offered, given, or proposed.
2. adjectiveWilling to tolerate or be open to people, ideas, or situations without judgement.

Accepting in a sentence

• verb

  The company is now accepting applications for the summer programme.

• adjective

  His colleagues were warm and accepting of the new manager.

• verb

  She thanked the committee while accepting the award on stage.

• adjective

  A more accepting attitude toward change made the team easier to lead.

Where does accepting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of 'accept', which traces back to the Latin verb accipere, meaning 'to receive' or 'to take to oneself'. That verb was formed from ad, meaning 'to' or 'toward', and capere, meaning 'to take' or 'to grasp', so the literal idea was taking something toward yourself. Latin produced a frequentative form, acceptare, meaning 'to take willingly', and it was this sense of willing receipt that English absorbed through Old French in the late 1300s. The same capere root quietly powers a large family of English words, including 'receive', 'capture', 'capable', and the easily confused 'except', whose ex- prefix means 'out', the exact opposite of taking in. The doubled c that catches writers reflects the assimilated ad- prefix, and remembering that 'accept' means to take IN (with a p) helps keep it apart from 'except', which leaves something OUT.

How the word is built

• ac- (variant of ad-, meaning 'to' or 'toward')
• cept (take, from Latin capere)
• -ing (participle/gerund suffix)