Crying

How to spell crying

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce crying

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does crying mean?

1. verbShedding tears, usually because of sadness, pain, or strong emotion.
2. adjectiveDemanding urgent attention, or obvious and serious, as in a 'crying need' or a 'crying shame'.

Crying in a sentence

• verb

  The baby kept crying until she was fed.

• adjective

  There is a crying need for more affordable housing in the city.

• verb

  He was crying quietly at the back of the room.

• adjective

  Wasting all that food is a crying shame.

Where does crying come from?

Language of origin: French

The base verb 'cry' arrived in English in the 1200s from the Old French crier, meaning 'to call out, shout, or shriek'. That word descended from the Latin quiritare, which meant 'to wail or cry out for help', a verb some Romans linked playfully to begging the Quirites (the citizens of Rome) for aid. In its earliest English use 'cry' meant to shout loudly or proclaim, as a town crier did, and only later did it settle on the modern sense of weeping with tears. The form 'crying' is simply the present participle, formed by adding -ing; the spelling keeps the y of 'cry' rather than changing it, which is why it is crying and not 'criing'. The same root still echoes in 'decry' and 'cry off', both built on the older 'call out' meaning.

How the word is built

• cry (from Old French crier: to call out)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)