Confirming

How to spell confirming

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce confirming

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does confirming mean?

1. verbEstablishing the truth or certainty of something, or formally confirming an arrangement.

Confirming in a sentence

• The airline sent an email confirming the booking and seat numbers.

• She is still confirming the meeting time with the other attendees.

Where does confirming come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'confirm', which traces back to the Latin confirmare, meaning 'to make firm' or 'to strengthen'. That verb was built from the prefix con-, used here as an intensifier meaning 'thoroughly', and firmus, the adjective for 'strong, steady, or fixed'. The same firmus root gives English the everyday words 'firm' and 'firmament', the latter once imagined as the solid vault of the sky. English took 'confirm' from Old French confermer in the 1200s, originally in religious and legal senses of ratifying or formally establishing something, and the spelling later drifted back toward the Latin -firm- to match its source. The modern sense of verifying or making certain grew naturally from that idea of making something settled and firm.

How the word is built

• con- (intensive: thoroughly)
• firm (from Latin firmus: strong, steady)
• -ing (present participle/gerund suffix)