Creeping

How to spell creeping

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce creeping

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does creeping mean?

1. verbMoving slowly, quietly, or stealthily, or advancing gradually and almost unnoticed.
2. adjectiveOf a plant, growing along the ground or over surfaces by sending out trailing or rooting stems.

Creeping in a sentence

• verb

  The cat was creeping silently toward the unsuspecting bird.

• adjective

  The gardener planted a creeping ivy to cover the bare brick wall.

• verb

  A creeping sense of dread settled over the office as the deadline slipped.

• adjective

  A low, creeping thyme spread between the paving stones in the courtyard.

Where does creeping come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English verb creopan, meaning to move along with the body low to the ground, the way a reptile or a child too young to walk gets about. It belongs to a wider Germanic family, with close cousins such as the Dutch kruipen and the Old Norse krjupa, all carrying the same sense of slow, low, crouching movement. The form 'creeping' is simply the verb plus the everyday -ing ending, used both as a present participle and as a descriptive adjective. Over the centuries the literal idea of low physical movement broadened into the figurative one of something advancing slowly and almost unnoticed, which is why we speak of creeping costs or a creeping sense of dread. The spelling is reassuringly regular: because 'creep' ends in a long vowel spelled with the double e, the final p is never doubled before -ing, so 'creepping' is always wrong.

How the word is built

• creep (from Old English creopan: to move with the body close to the ground)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)