Assuming

How to spell assuming

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce assuming

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does assuming mean?

1. verbPresent participle of assume: taking something to be true without proof, or taking on a role, duty, or burden.
2. conjunctionUsed to introduce a condition taken as true for the sake of argument; supposing that.

Assuming in a sentence

• verb

  She signed the contract without assuming any personal liability.

• conjunction

  Assuming the train is on time, we will arrive before noon.

• verb

  The analyst kept assuming the figures were accurate before checking the source.

• conjunction

  Assuming nothing goes wrong, the renovation should finish by spring.

Where does assuming come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'assume', which English took from the Latin assumere, a compound of ad, meaning 'to' or 'towards', and sumere, meaning 'to take' or 'to take up'. The literal Latin sense was to take something to oneself, and that explains the two strands of meaning still alive today: to take a thing onto yourself (assuming a role or a debt) and to take a thing as true (assuming a fact without proof). The word entered English in the 1400s, and the assimilation of the prefix ad- into as- before the s of sumere is exactly why we get the double s that writers sometimes forget. The same sumere root surfaces in relatives such as 'consume', 'resume', and 'presume', all of which share that core idea of taking. By the 1600s 'assuming' had also developed an adjective sense describing a person who takes more importance on themselves than they deserve, that is, someone presumptuous.

How the word is built

• as- (assimilated form of ad-: to, towards)
• sum (from sumere: to take)
• -ing (present participle/gerund suffix)