Adding

How to spell adding

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce adding

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does adding mean?

1. verbJoining one thing to another, or combining numbers to find a total.

Adding in a sentence

• Adding a second monitor improved his productivity at work.

• She kept adding items to the shopping list until it filled the page.

Where does adding come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'add', which English took from the Latin verb addere, meaning 'to put to' or 'to give to'. That Latin verb was itself built from the prefix ad-, meaning 'to' or 'toward', joined to dare, meaning 'to give', so the literal idea was 'to give toward' a total. English adopted 'add' in the late fourteenth century, originally in the sense of joining numbers together, and the -ing form follows the ordinary English pattern for making participles and gerunds. The spelling keeps the double d because the base word 'add' already ends in two d's; the suffix simply attaches without changing it. The same dare 'to give' root also lies behind words like 'date' and 'tradition', which share that ancient sense of handing something over.

How the word is built

• add (from Latin addere: to put to)
• -ing (present participle/gerund suffix)