Changing

How to spell changing

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce changing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does changing mean?

1. verbIn the process of becoming different, or of replacing one thing with another.
2. adjectiveContinually shifting or in a state of alteration.

Changing in a sentence

• verb

  The company is changing its entire payroll system this quarter.

• adjective

  Adapting to the changing demands of the job kept her alert.

• verb

  She keeps changing her mind about which flat to rent.

• adjective

  Investors worried about the changing market conditions.

Where does changing come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is the present participle of 'change', a verb English took from the Old French 'changier', meaning 'to alter' or 'to exchange'. That French verb descended from the Late Latin 'cambiare', a variant of the Latin 'cambire', which meant 'to barter' or 'to exchange one thing for another', and many scholars believe the Latin root was itself borrowed from a Celtic source. English adopted 'change' in the 1200s, and the modern spelling preserves the soft 'g' that the following 'e' originally signalled. The spelling trap appears precisely when the suffix '-ing' is added: the silent final 'e' of 'change' is dropped, giving 'changing' rather than the tempting but wrong 'changeing'. The same Latin root for exchange survives in the financial term 'exchange' and in 'cambium', the growing layer of a tree.

How the word is built

• change (from Old French changier 'to alter, exchange')
• -ing (present participle / verbal noun suffix); note the silent final -e of 'change' is dropped before -ing