Appealing

How to spell appealing

9 letters · 3 syllables

1 of the 20 people asked to spell appealing in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

How to pronounce appealing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does appealing mean?

1. adjectiveAttractive, inviting, or pleasing in a way that arouses interest or desire.
2. verbFormally requesting that a higher authority review and overturn a decision (present participle of appeal).

Appealing in a sentence

• adjective

  The cottage looked far more appealing once the garden was tidied.

• verb

  The company is appealing the ruling on the grounds of new evidence.

• adjective

  A flexible schedule makes the job especially appealing to working parents.

• verb

  Her lawyers are appealing the verdict to a higher court.

Where does appealing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows out of the verb 'appeal', which English borrowed in the 1300s from the Old French 'apeler', meaning 'to call upon' or 'to summon'. That French verb came straight from the Latin 'appellare', which literally meant 'to address' or 'to call by name', formed from 'ad' (meaning 'to') and 'pellere' (meaning 'to drive' or 'to push'). The earliest English sense was strictly legal, describing a formal call for a higher court to review a case, and that courtroom meaning survives today. From the idea of calling on someone for sympathy or support came the gentler sense of something that 'calls to' our liking, and by the 1700s 'appealing' had settled into its modern meaning of attractive or inviting. The double 'p' is the spelling trap, and it traces directly to that Latin 'ad' prefix being assimilated into 'ap-' before 'pellere'.

How the word is built

• ap- (to, from ad-)
• peal (from Latin pellere: to drive, call upon)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)