Boosting

How to spell boosting

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce boosting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does boosting mean?

1. verbIncreasing, raising, or improving the level, strength, or amount of something.

Boosting in a sentence

• The new advert is boosting sales across every region.

• The manager spent the morning boosting team morale before the launch.

Where does boosting come from?

Language of origin: Unknown

This is the present participle of the verb 'boost', a word whose origins are genuinely murky. 'Boost' first appears in American English in the early nineteenth century, meaning to push or shove something upward, as in giving a person a leg-up over a fence. Lexicographers have never traced it to a clear parent word in any older language, so most dictionaries simply label it of uncertain origin; for that reason its background is best described as unknown rather than invented. From the literal idea of physically lifting, the sense broadened to figurative raising: boosting prices, morale, signals, or sales. The doubled 'o' that catches some writers comes straight from the spelling of 'boost' itself, and the only thing the -ing ending changes is the addition of the suffix, since the silent 'e' is not present to drop.

How the word is built

• boost (raise, increase)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)