Denying

How to spell denying

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce denying

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does denying mean?

1. verbPresent participle of deny: refusing to admit the truth of something, or refusing to grant or allow it.

Denying in a sentence

• He kept denying any involvement in the missing funds.

• The council is denying residents access to the closed car park.

Where does denying come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the present participle of the verb 'deny', which English took from the Old French 'denier', meaning 'to refuse' or 'to reject'. That French verb descended from the Latin 'denegare', built from the intensifying prefix 'de-' and the verb 'negare', meaning 'to say no' or 'to refuse'. The Latin 'negare' is itself rooted in the little word 'neg', a negative element related to 'no', and it survives in a whole family of English words such as 'negate', 'negative', and 'renege'. English adopted 'deny' in the 1300s with its modern range of senses: refusing to grant a request and refusing to admit that something is true. The spelling trap appears only when the suffix is added, because the final 'y' of 'deny' is kept rather than changed to 'i' before the '-ing' ending, giving 'denying' rather than the wrong 'deniing'.

How the word is built

• deny (from Latin denegare: to refuse, say no)
• -ing (present participle suffix)