Blowing

How to spell blowing

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce blowing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does blowing mean?

1. verbProducing or being moved by a current of air, as wind or breath.

Blowing in a sentence

• A cold wind was blowing across the empty car park.

• She kept blowing on her coffee to cool it down.

Where does blowing come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the present participle of the verb 'blow', which descends from the Old English verb blawan, meaning 'to move air' or 'to produce a current of air'. That verb traces back to a Proto-Germanic root and is ultimately related to the Latin flare, 'to blow', which survives in English words such as 'inflate' and 'deflate'. From its earliest use, blawan covered the movement of wind as well as the act of forcing breath from the mouth, and both senses are still alive today. The spelling keeps the silent 'w' that once signalled a fuller vowel sound, and adding the regular '-ing' ending simply attaches to the bare 'blow' without dropping or doubling any letters. Because the base word is so old and so common, the participle 'blowing' has been written this way for centuries.

How the word is built

• blow (Old English blawan: to move air)
• -ing (present participle suffix)