Denouncing

How to spell denouncing

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce denouncing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does denouncing mean?

1. verbPublicly condemning a person, action, or policy as wrong or reprehensible.

Denouncing in a sentence

• The senator spent the entire speech denouncing the corruption inside his own party.

• By denouncing the merger in front of reporters, she lost the support of the board.

Where does denouncing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb denuntiare, which combined de-, here carrying the force of 'down upon' or 'against', with nuntiare, meaning 'to announce' or 'to report'. That second part grew from nuntius, a 'messenger' or the message itself, the same root that lies behind 'announce', 'pronounce', and 'renounce'. The original Latin sense was formal and almost legal: to give official notice of something, often a threat or an accusation. English took the word in through Old French denoncier during the 1300s, and over time the meaning narrowed to the modern idea of publicly condemning a person or an action. The spelling trap sits in the middle: the 'ou' echoes 'announce' and 'pronounce', and the final consonant is a soft 's' sound spelled with a 'c', so it is easy to mishandle as 'denouncing' versus a phonetic 'denounsing'.

How the word is built

• de- (down, against)
• nounce (from Latin nuntiare: to announce, report)
• -ing (present participle suffix)