Correcting

How to spell correcting

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce correcting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does correcting mean?

1. verbIn the act of marking, fixing, or setting right something that is wrong or inaccurate.

Correcting in a sentence

• The teacher spent the evening correcting a stack of exam papers.

• She kept correcting the figures in the budget until they balanced.

Where does correcting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb corrigere, which meant 'to make straight, to set right, or to reform'. It was built from the intensive prefix com- (here meaning 'thoroughly') and regere, the verb 'to guide, to rule, or to keep straight'; that same regere lies behind words such as 'direct', 'regulate', and 'rectangle'. The past participle of corrigere was correctus, literally 'made straight', and that form passed into English through Old French during the 1300s. At first 'correct' carried the moral sense of setting a person right or reforming bad behaviour, and only later did it settle into the everyday meaning of fixing errors. The present participle 'correcting' adds the ordinary -ing ending, and the spelling keeps the doubled letters of the Latin com- prefix, which is why it has both a double r in spirit and the firm -rect core that links it to 'straight'.

How the word is built

• cor- (from com-, intensive: thoroughly)
• rect (from regere: to guide, keep straight)
• -ing (present participle/gerund suffix)