Affecting

How to spell affecting

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce affecting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does affecting mean?

1. adjectiveStirring strong feelings, especially tenderness, sympathy, or sadness.
2. verbPresent participle of affect: having an effect on or making a difference to something.

Affecting in a sentence

• adjective

  The documentary about the refugees was deeply affecting and stayed with viewers for days.

• verb

  The strike is affecting deliveries across the whole region.

• adjective

  She gave an affecting speech at her mother's retirement dinner.

• verb

  Rising fuel prices are affecting the cost of nearly every product on the shelves.

Where does affecting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin verb afficere, meaning 'to do something to' or 'to influence', which was formed from ad ('to, toward') and facere ('to do, to make'). The past participle affectus carried the sense of being moved or disposed in a certain way, and through Old French affecter the family entered English in the late Middle Ages. The form 'affecting' is the present participle, and over time it developed the special adjectival meaning of stirring the feelings, that is, doing something to the heart. The same facere root sits inside a huge family of everyday words such as 'factory', 'manufacture', and 'effect', which is exactly why the spelling traps writers: 'affect' (the verb) and 'effect' (usually the noun) look and sound similar but split apart on that opening vowel. Remembering that 'affecting' begins with a- (from ad-, 'toward') helps keep it distinct from anything spelled with an e.

How the word is built

• af- (from ad-: to, toward)
• fect (from facere: to do, to make)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)