Addressing

How to spell addressing

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce addressing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does addressing mean?

1. verbIn the act of speaking formally to a group, or of tackling and dealing with a matter.
2. verbIn the act of writing the destination details on a letter or parcel.

Addressing in a sentence

• The manager is addressing the staff about the new safety policy.

• She spent the evening addressing the wedding invitations by hand.

• The new strategy focuses on addressing the steady fall in sales.

• He is addressing the parcel to his sister before the post office closes.

Where does addressing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin directus, the past participle of dirigere, meaning 'to set straight' or 'to direct', which itself joined the prefix dis- (apart) with regere (to guide or rule). Through Old French the verb adresser developed, meaning 'to set right' or 'to direct toward', and Middle English took it up around the late 1300s as 'address', first carrying the idea of aiming or directing something. Over time the sense fanned out: directing words to a person became 'addressing' an audience, directing a letter became writing the 'address', and directing one's attention to a problem became 'addressing' an issue. The doubled letters that trip up modern writers, the two d's and the two s's, come from the French ad- prefix fusing onto a stem that already ended in -ess. A useful memory hook is that the same regere root sits inside 'direct', 'correct', and 'regent', all about guiding or ruling.

How the word is built

• ad- (to)
• dress (from Latin directus: made straight, directed)
• -ing (present participle suffix)