Blinking

How to spell blinking

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce blinking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does blinking mean?

1. verbOpening and shutting the eyes quickly, or (of a light) flashing on and off.

Blinking in a sentence

• The cursor kept blinking at the top of the empty document.

• She sat blinking in the sudden glare of the office lights.

Where does blinking come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Blinking is built from the verb 'blink' plus the ending -ing, which turns a verb into a present participle or an adjective of ongoing action. The root 'blink' appeared in late Middle English, around the 1300s, and is closely tied to the older verb 'blenk' and to the Middle Dutch 'blinken', meaning 'to shine' or 'to gleam'. That same family lies behind 'blank' and the Germanic sense of brightness, which explains why an early meaning of blink had to do with flashing or twinkling light rather than the eyes. Over time the everyday meaning settled on the quick involuntary shutting of the eyelids, and by extension the flashing on and off of a light. In British usage 'blinking' also took on a second life as a polite, softened swear word, a respectable stand-in for a stronger oath. The spelling is phonetically regular, so the only thing to watch is the -nk- that the ear can blur with the following -ing.

How the word is built

• blink (root: to shut and open the eyes quickly)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)