Cheering

How to spell cheering

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce cheering

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cheering mean?

1. verbShouting loudly in approval, support, or encouragement.
2. adjectiveCausing happiness or encouragement; comforting.

Cheering in a sentence

• verb

  The crowd was cheering loudly as the runners crossed the finish line.

• adjective

  The doctor delivered some cheering news about her recovery.

• verb

  Thousands of fans were cheering from the packed stands.

• adjective

  The quarterly report contained cheering figures for the small business.

Where does cheering come from?

Language of origin: French

The base word cheer entered English in the 1200s from the Old French chiere, which meant 'face' or 'facial expression', itself drawn from the Late Latin cara, 'face', a word ultimately linked to the Greek kara, meaning 'head'. At first an English cheer described someone's outward look or mood, so you could have a glad cheer or a sad cheer; only later did the word narrow to the happy sense alone, the gladness that a smiling face shows. From there it grew into the noun for a shout of encouragement and the verb for raising someone's spirits. Adding the ordinary -ing ending produced cheering, used both for the act of shouting approval and for anything that lifts the mood. The spelling is straightforward once you remember it is simply cheer plus -ing, with the silent final e of cheer dropped before the ending.

How the word is built

• cheer (from Old French chiere: face, mood)
• -ing (verb/adjective suffix)