Concealing

How to spell concealing

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce concealing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does concealing mean?

1. verbKeeping something hidden, secret, or out of sight.

Concealing in a sentence

• Concealing the losses from shareholders eventually led to a fraud charge.

• She was skilled at concealing her disappointment during the performance review.

Where does concealing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb concelare, meaning 'to hide completely', which combined the intensifying prefix con- with celare, 'to hide' or 'to keep secret'. That celare root reaches back to an ancient idea of covering or roofing over, and it is a cousin of words like 'cell' (a small covered room) and even 'cellar' (a hidden storage space below ground). English took the word in during the 1300s through Old French conceler, where the older Latin spelling had already softened. The modern -ceal ending, rather than -ceil, is the spelling trap: writers who picture the homophone-like 'ceiling' can drift toward the wrong vowel order, but the 'ea' here mirrors the related 'reveal' and the noun 'concealment'. Tying it to 'reveal', its natural opposite, is a reliable way to fix the spelling in memory.

How the word is built

• con- (intensive, fully)
• ceal (from Latin celare: to hide)
• -ing (present participle)