Cheerleading

How to spell cheerleading

12 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce cheerleading

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does cheerleading mean?

1. nounThe activity of leading organised crowd support for a team with coordinated chants, dance, and gymnastic routines.

Cheerleading in a sentence

• She took up cheerleading in her first year at college.

• Competitive cheerleading now includes demanding gymnastic stunts.

Where does cheerleading come from?

Language of origin: French

This is a modern English compound, built from 'cheer' and 'lead'. The first part, 'cheer', came into English in the 1200s from Old French 'chiere', meaning the face or expression, which traced back to Late Latin 'cara' for 'face'; over time a person's 'good cheer' shifted from describing a glad face to meaning shouts of encouragement and support. The second part, 'lead', is a native Old English word, 'laedan', meaning to guide or conduct. The verb 'cheerlead' and the activity 'cheerleading' emerged in the United States around the early twentieth century, when organised squads began leading crowds in chanting support at sporting events. The repeated 'ee' in both 'cheer' and 'lead' is the spelling point worth fixing in mind: 'cheer' takes the double e, while 'lead' uses the 'ea' pairing.

How the word is built

• cheer (shout of encouragement)
• lead (to guide, from Old English laedan)
• -ing (noun/gerund suffix)