Doing

How to spell doing

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce doing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does doing mean?

1. verbThe act of performing, carrying out, or being engaged in an activity.

Doing in a sentence

• He is doing the accounts before the deadline.

• Doing the laundry took most of her afternoon.

Where does doing come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the present participle and gerund of the verb 'do', which descends from the Old English 'don', meaning 'to act, make, or perform'. That verb traces back to a Proto-Germanic root, and ultimately to an Indo-European base that also gave Latin its 'facere' (to make) and Greek its 'tithenai' (to put or place), although English took its own native line. The '-ing' ending is the long-standing Old English suffix that turns a verb into a noun of action or marks ongoing activity, and it has stayed remarkably stable in spelling for over a thousand years. Because both 'do' and '-ing' are short and entirely regular, 'doing' is simply 'do' with the suffix attached, with no doubled letters and no dropped 'e' to worry about. The only thing to remember is that the 'o' of 'do' is kept, so it is 'doing' rather than 'douing' or 'dooing'.

How the word is built

• do (to perform, from Old English don)
• -ing (present participle/gerund suffix)