Crumbling

How to spell crumbling

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce crumbling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does crumbling mean?

1. verbBreaking gradually into small fragments, or steadily deteriorating and falling apart.

Crumbling in a sentence

• The old stone wall at the back of the garden is slowly crumbling away.

• Surveyors warned that the crumbling foundations would cost a fortune to repair.

Where does crumbling come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows out of the Old English noun cruma, meaning a small fragment or morsel of bread, the same root that gives us the modern word 'crumb'. In late Middle English the noun spawned a frequentative verb, 'crumble', using the -le ending that signals a repeated or continuous action, so it literally meant 'to keep breaking into little crumbs'. The spelling carries a famous quirk: the silent 'b' in crumb (and therefore in crumble and crumbling) was not pronounced and was added later by writers who modelled the word on Latin-looking spellings, much as happened with 'thumb' and 'limb'. The verb broadened over time from food falling apart to stone, plaster, and eventually whole institutions decaying. That inherited silent 'b' is the spelling trap: the ear hears nothing between the 'm' and the 'l', yet the letter must still be written.

How the word is built

• crumb (a small fragment, from Old English cruma)
• -le (frequentative verb suffix: to keep breaking into crumbs)
• -ing (present participle)