Contracting

How to spell contracting

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce contracting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does contracting mean?

1. verbEntering into a formal, legally binding agreement to provide or receive goods, work, or services.
2. verbBecoming smaller or drawing together in size, length, or volume.
3. verbCatching or becoming infected with a disease or illness.

Contracting in a sentence

• The council is contracting a private firm to maintain the roads.

• The metal pipe keeps contracting as the temperature drops overnight.

• Travellers risk contracting malaria in some tropical regions.

• She built her career by contracting her design services to small businesses.

• The patient's muscles were visibly contracting during the exercise.

• Hospital staff take precautions against contracting infections from patients.

Where does contracting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows from the Latin verb contrahere, which combined con- meaning 'together' with trahere meaning 'to draw' or 'to pull', so the literal sense was 'to draw together'. From that single image English derived several modern strands: muscles or materials drawing themselves together (shrinking), two parties drawing themselves together into a binding agreement, and a person drawing an illness into the body. The noun and verb 'contract' reached English in the late 1300s through Old French, with the -ing form following naturally as the participle and gerund. The same trahere root pulls through a whole family of English words, including 'tractor', 'attract', 'subtract' and 'retract', and recognising that tract spelling helps fix the middle of the word. The spelling is regular, with no silent letters, so the only real care needed is the single c after the n and the standard -ct cluster.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• tract (from trahere: to draw or pull)
• -ing (present participle suffix)