Combining

How to spell combining

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce combining

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does combining mean?

1. verbJoining or merging two or more things together so they form a single whole.

Combining in a sentence

• The recipe works by combining the flour and butter before adding the eggs.

• She saved money by combining two errands into a single trip.

Where does combining come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'combine', which English took from the Late Latin combinare, meaning 'to join two together'. That Latin verb was built from com- 'together' and bini, a word meaning 'two by two' or 'in pairs', so the literal idea was the pairing up of two things. English borrowed it in the fifteenth century, originally by way of Old French and the Late Latin form, and the sense quickly broadened from joining a strict pair to merging any number of things into one. The same bini root for 'twofold' also sits inside 'binary', which is a useful reminder of the original pairing sense. When the suffix -ing is added, the silent final 'e' of 'combine' is dropped, which is the small spelling point worth remembering: it is combining, not 'combineing'.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• bin (from Latin bini: two by two)
• -ing (present participle suffix)