Burgeoning

How to spell burgeoning

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce burgeoning

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does burgeoning mean?

1. adjectiveGrowing or developing rapidly and flourishing.
2. verbThe present participle of burgeon: actively growing, expanding, or flourishing.

Burgeoning in a sentence

• adjective

  The burgeoning tech sector created thousands of new jobs in the city.

• verb

  Demand for electric cars is burgeoning across every major market.

• adjective

  Her burgeoning career as a consultant left her little time for holidays.

• verb

  Interest in the festival has been burgeoning since the line-up was announced.

Where does burgeoning come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Old French 'borjon' or 'burjon', meaning a bud or young shoot on a plant, and the related verb meaning to put out buds. Many scholars connect it to the Late Latin 'burra', meaning a shaggy tuft of wool or coarse hair, the idea being that a fresh bud resembles a small downy swelling on a branch. English took up the verb 'burgeon' in the 1300s with its literal gardening sense of sprouting, and over the centuries it broadened into the figurative meaning of anything that grows or flourishes rapidly. The 'geo' in the middle, pronounced like a soft 'j', is the spelling trap: it preserves the French ancestry even though nothing about the sound suggests those letters. Knowing that the root is the same plant-bud image found in the surname Burgeon helps fix that unexpected 'geon' ending in mind.

How the word is built

• burgeon (to bud, sprout, grow)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)