Consolidating

How to spell consolidating

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce consolidating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does consolidating mean?

1. verbCombining several separate things into a single, stronger, more unified whole.
2. verbCombining multiple debts or loans into a single payment, usually at a lower overall rate.

Consolidating in a sentence

• The manager is consolidating three departments into one team.

• By consolidating his credit card balances, he reduced the monthly interest.

• She spent the afternoon consolidating her notes into a single document.

• The couple are consolidating their student loans into a single repayment.

Where does consolidating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb consolidare, which meant 'to make solid' or 'to make firm', built from the prefix com- meaning 'together' and the adjective solidus meaning 'solid, firm, or whole'. The same solidus also gives English the everyday word 'solid' and lies behind 'soldier', so the idea of firmness runs through a surprising family of relatives. English took the verb in during the late 1400s and early 1500s, originally in a fairly literal medical and physical sense of making something firm or knitting it together, as a wound or a structure might heal and harden. Over time the meaning broadened to the modern figurative idea of combining several things into one strong, unified whole, and later still it picked up the financial sense of merging debts or holdings. The spelling keeps a single 's' and a single 'l' around the 'solid' core, which is the part worth fixing in memory, since the unstressed vowels tempt writers into doubling or dropping letters.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• solid (firm, whole)
• -ate (verb)
• -ing (present participle)