Dissolving

How to spell dissolving

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce dissolving

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dissolving mean?

1. verbMixing into a liquid until the solid disappears and becomes part of the solution.
2. verbFormally ending or breaking up an organisation, partnership or agreement.

Dissolving in a sentence

• The sugar was already dissolving into the hot coffee.

• The partners are dissolving the business after twenty years of trading.

• Keep stirring until the salt is fully dissolving in the pan.

• The board voted in favour of dissolving the committee entirely.

Where does dissolving come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb dissolvere, which combined dis-, meaning 'apart', with solvere, meaning 'to loosen, release or free'. The literal sense was therefore 'to loosen apart', and that idea of unbinding still runs through every modern meaning, whether a tablet coming apart in water or a contract being undone. English took it up in the late fourteenth century, at first for the physical breaking up of solids into liquid and soon afterwards for the figurative dissolving of bonds, assemblies and agreements. The same solvere root quietly powers a whole family of relatives, including 'solve', 'solvent', 'absolve' and 'resolution', all of which share that notion of loosening or setting free. The doubled s comes straight from the Latin prefix meeting the s of solvere, and that is precisely the spot writers tend to slip on, dropping one s and writing 'disolving'.

How the word is built

• dis- (apart)
• solv (from Latin solvere: to loosen or free)
• -ing (present participle suffix)