Corresponding

How to spell corresponding

13 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce corresponding

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does corresponding mean?

1. adjectiveMatching, equivalent, or directly related to something else.

Corresponding in a sentence

• Each invoice should list the order number and the corresponding payment.

• The report shows sales figures alongside the corresponding costs for each quarter.

Where does corresponding come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb respondere, which literally meant 'to answer back' or 'to promise in return', formed from re- 'back' and spondere 'to pledge or promise'. In Medieval Latin the prefixed form correspondere developed, where cor- (an assimilated form of com- meaning 'together') gave the sense of two things answering or matching each other. The word entered English through Old French during the late 1400s, first carrying the idea of communicating by letters, two parties answering one another, and later the broader sense of things being in agreement or matching up. The everyday noun 'correspondence' and the agent noun 'correspondent', as in a news reporter, all grow from the same root. A useful spelling memory is the doubled r at the start, which comes from cor- meeting respond, and the single s in the middle, since spondere had only one s.

How the word is built

• cor- (together, variant of com-)
• respond (from respondere: to answer)
• -ing (adjective/participle suffix)