Donating

How to spell donating

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce donating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does donating mean?

1. verbGiving money, goods, or services to a charity or cause without expecting payment.

Donating in a sentence

• The company is donating a percentage of every sale to the food bank.

• She has been donating blood twice a year for over a decade.

Where does donating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'donate', which traces back to the Latin verb donare, meaning 'to give' or 'to present as a gift'. That verb was built on donum, the Latin noun for 'a gift', which in turn comes from the root dare, meaning 'to give'. Interestingly, the verb 'donate' is a relative latecomer to English: it appeared in the early 1800s, formed by working backwards from the older noun 'donation' (a back-formation), which English had already borrowed through Old French from Latin donatio. The same dare and donum root family gives us 'donor', 'pardon', and even 'condone', all circling the idea of giving. The single 'n' and single 't' make the spelling regular once you remember the silent treatment the final 'e' of 'donate' gets when '-ing' is added.

How the word is built

• don- (from Latin donare: to give, present)
• -ate (verb)
• -ing (present participle)