Containing

How to spell containing

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce containing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does containing mean?

1. verbHaving or holding something inside; including as a component.

Containing in a sentence

• The police found a box containing old bank statements.

• She ordered the soup containing no dairy at all.

Where does containing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'contain', which English borrowed through Old French 'contenir' in the 1200s from the Latin verb 'continere'. That Latin word was built from the prefix 'con-', meaning 'together', and the verb 'tenere', meaning 'to hold', so its literal sense was 'to hold together' or 'to keep within bounds'. From the idea of holding things within limits came the modern meanings of enclosing something inside a vessel and of restraining or controlling something. The same 'tenere' root for holding turns up in a whole family of relatives such as 'retain', 'detain', 'maintain' and 'tenant', which all share the unstressed '-tain' spelling. That familiar '-tain' block, plus the regular '-ing' ending, makes the word easy to assemble once you recognise the parts.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• tain (hold, from Latin tenere)
• -ing (present participle suffix)