Activating

How to spell activating

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce activating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does activating mean?

1. verbPresent participle of activate: making something operational, or causing a process or device to start working.

Activating in a sentence

• Activating the new card requires a quick phone call to the bank.

• The alarm system begins activating the moment the front door opens.

Where does activating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb agere, meaning 'to do, drive, or set in motion', whose past participle was actus 'done'. From that came the medieval Latin activus, describing something full of action or practical, which English borrowed through Old French as 'active' in the late 1300s. The verb 'activate' was then built in English by adding the -ate ending, recorded from the early 1600s, meaning to make something active or to set it working. 'Activating' is simply its present participle, used both as an ongoing verb and as an adjective. The spelling stays regular: because 'activate' ends in a silent 'e', that 'e' is dropped before the -ing ending, which is the small step writers occasionally overlook.

How the word is built

• act (from Latin actus: a doing)
• -ive (adjective: tending to)
• -ate (verb: to make)
• -ing (present participle)