Coating

How to spell coating

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce coating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does coating mean?

1. nounA thin layer of a substance applied over a surface to protect, seal, or decorate it.
2. verbPresent participle of coat: covering a surface with a layer of something.

Coating in a sentence

• noun

  The pan has a non-stick coating that stops food burning.

• verb

  The workers spent the morning coating the railings with primer.

• noun

  A fresh coating of varnish protected the wooden deck from rain.

• verb

  A fine drizzle was coating the windows in a thin film of water.

Where does coating come from?

Language of origin: French

The base word coat arrived in English in the 1300s from the Old French cote, which named a sleeved outer garment or tunic worn over other clothes. The French term in turn traced back to a Germanic root meaning a coarse woollen cloak, and over time English broadened coat from clothing to any layer that covers a surface, much as a garment covers the body. By the early 1600s coat was being used for a thin overlying film of paint, varnish, or metal, and adding the noun-forming suffix -ing produced coating, the spread layer itself. The spelling keeps the long o sound spelled with the o-plus-silent-e of coat, so the e drops when -ing is attached, leaving the easily remembered oa vowel pair.

How the word is built

• coat (a covering layer)
• -ing (noun/gerund suffix)