Computing

How to spell computing

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce computing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does computing mean?

1. nounThe use or study of computers and the processing of information by them.
2. verbCalculating or working out something with figures, often using a machine.

Computing in a sentence

• noun

  She earned a degree in computing before joining the software firm.

• verb

  The spreadsheet is busy computing the totals for each branch.

• noun

  Cloud computing lets the company store its records on remote servers.

• verb

  The program spent several minutes computing the optimal route.

Where does computing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb computare, which meant 'to reckon up' or 'to count together'. It was formed from com-, meaning 'together', and putare, a verb that originally meant 'to prune' or 'to clean up' and then came to mean 'to reckon' or 'to think over', as if mentally tidying figures into order. Latin computare passed into French as computer and conter, and the same root branched into the everyday English words 'count' and 'account' as well as the more technical 'compute'. English took 'compute' directly from the Latin and French forms in the early 1600s, and the form 'computing' arose naturally as its present participle and verbal noun. Once electronic calculating machines appeared in the twentieth century, 'computing' settled into its modern meaning as the field and activity of using computers; the spelling is straightforward because the silent final 'e' of 'compute' is dropped before the -ing ending.

How the word is built

• com- (together)
• put (reckon, think)
• -ing (verb/noun suffix)