Citing

How to spell citing

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce citing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does citing mean?

1. verbQuoting or referring to a source, authority, or piece of evidence to support a point.
2. verbNaming something as the reason or justification for a decision or action.
3. verbFormally charging or ticketing someone for breaking a rule or law.

Citing in a sentence

• The report backed every claim by citing peer-reviewed studies.

• Citing family commitments, he turned down the overseas posting.

• The officer spent the afternoon citing drivers for parking illegally.

• She strengthened her essay by citing two well-known historians.

• The company closed the branch, citing falling sales as the cause.

• The inspector was citing the restaurant for several hygiene breaches.

Where does citing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'cite', which English took in the 1400s from the Old French 'citer', itself from the Latin 'citare', meaning 'to summon, to call forth, or to set in motion'. That Latin verb was a frequentative of 'ciere', 'to move or rouse', so the underlying idea is one of calling something up or putting it into motion. The earliest English use was a legal one: to 'cite' a person was to officially summon them to appear in court. From that formal calling-up grew the modern sense of calling up a passage, an authority, or a reason to support an argument. The base verb ends in a silent 'e', which is dropped before the '-ing' is added, and that is precisely why the spelling parts company with its sound-alikes 'sighting' (from 'sight') and 'siting' (from 'site').

How the word is built

• cite (from Latin citare: to summon, call)
• -ing (present participle suffix)

Words that sound like citing

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• sighting: An occasion on which something, especially something rare or notable, is seen or spotted.