Circling

How to spell circling

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce circling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does circling mean?

1. verbMoving round and round in a circular path, or drawing a ring around something.

Circling in a sentence

• The plane kept circling the airport while waiting for clearance to land.

• She spent ten minutes circling the parking lot looking for a space.

Where does circling come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'circle', which traces back to the Latin circulus, meaning 'a little ring', a diminutive of circus, 'a ring' or 'circular arena'. The Romans used circus for round structures and racing tracks, and the diminutive circulus described any small round shape. The word passed into Old French as cercle before entering Middle English around the 1300s, where the spelling settled toward 'circle' under the influence of the Latin form. When the verb takes the '-ing' ending, the final silent 'e' is dropped, giving 'circling'; that dropped 'e' is the small trap, since the root word so visibly ends in -le. The same circus root survives in everyday relatives such as 'circuit', 'circulate', and indeed 'circus' itself.

How the word is built

• circ(le)- (from circus/circulus: ring)
• -ling (present participle, with dropped silent e)