Ageing

How to spell ageing

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce ageing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ageing mean?

1. adjectiveGrowing old, or showing the gradual effects of the passing of time.
2. nounThe natural process of growing older over time.

Ageing in a sentence

• adjective

  The country must plan services for its ageing population.

• noun

  Ageing is a normal part of every person's life.

• adjective

  He finally replaced the ageing boiler that kept breaking down.

• noun

  The laboratory studies the biology of ageing in cells.

Where does ageing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on the noun age, which travelled into English through Old French aage and age during the 1200s. The Old French form descended from an unrecorded Late Latin aetaticum, itself rooted in the Latin aetas, meaning a period of life or a lifetime, which in turn goes back to aevum, meaning an age, era, or stretch of eternity. Once age settled in English as both a noun and a verb, the suffix -ing was added to form the present participle, the verbal noun, and an adjective describing the slow effect of passing time. The spelling trap lives entirely in that retained e: British, Canadian, and many other usages keep it as ageing to signal the soft 'j' sound, whereas American style usually drops it to aging. The same aevum ancestor survives in relatives such as eternal and longevity, both of which deal with the passing of time.

How the word is built

• age (from Latin aetas: age, lifetime)
• -ing (forming a verbal noun, participle, or adjective); British spelling keeps the silent e to preserve the soft g sound

British and American spelling

Ageing is the British spelling. American English spells it aging.