Bragging

How to spell bragging

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bragging

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bragging mean?

1. verbTalking with excessive pride about one's achievements or possessions.

Bragging in a sentence

• He kept bragging about his new car at the office party.

• She was bragging that she had finished the report before anyone else.

Where does bragging come from?

Language of origin: Unknown

The word traces back to the verb 'brag', which appeared in English around the 1300s meaning to make a loud noise or to talk boastfully. Its ultimate origin is uncertain, though it may be linked to an old word for blowing a trumpet or sounding off loudly, and some scholars connect it to a Celtic or Germanic root for being lively or showy. In its earliest uses it could simply mean 'spirited' or 'noisy' before it narrowed to the modern sense of boasting about oneself. The form 'bragging' is the present participle, and because 'brag' ends in a single vowel followed by a single consonant, that final 'g' doubles before the '-ing' ending; this doubling rule is exactly the spelling trap, since writers sometimes leave only one 'g'. The base word remains common in everyday speech, which keeps the doubled-consonant pattern familiar.

How the word is built

• brag (to boast)
• -g- (doubled consonant after short vowel)
• -ing (present participle/gerund suffix)