Combating

How to spell combating

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce combating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does combating mean?

1. verbTaking action to reduce, stop, or fight against something harmful.

Combating in a sentence

• The new task force is combating online fraud across the region.

• Public health officials spent the year combating misinformation about the vaccine.

Where does combating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb battuere, which literally meant 'to beat' or 'to strike', the same root that gives us 'batter' and 'battle'. With the prefix com-, meaning 'together' or 'with', Late Latin formed combattere, 'to fight with', the action of two sides striking at each other. The word passed into Old French as combattre and was borrowed into English in the sixteenth century, first as a noun for a fight and then as a verb meaning to oppose or struggle against something. The single-t spelling 'combating' follows the rule that an unstressed final syllable does not double its consonant before -ing, which is exactly where writers stumble, since the rival form 'combatting' is also seen in print. Keeping the stress on the first syllable, COM-bat, is the clue that the t stays single.

How the word is built

• com- (together, with)
• bat (from Latin battuere: to beat, strike)
• -ing (present participle)