Earring
nounA piece of jewellery worn on or hanging from the ear lobe.
How to spell earring
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce earring
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does earring mean?
- nounA piece of jewellery worn on or hanging from the ear lobe.
Earring in a sentence
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One earring slipped off and rolled under the sofa.
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She chose a simple gold earring for the interview.
Where does earring come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a native English compound that dates back to Old English, where it appeared as earhring, formed simply from eare meaning 'ear' and hring meaning 'ring' or 'circular band'. Both halves are old Germanic words: the ancestor of 'ring' described any round loop or band, and it survives in countless modern compounds. Over the centuries the awkward middle cluster softened in speech, so the spoken word lost the sense of two clearly separate parts, yet the spelling preserves both whole words side by side. That is exactly where the trap lies: because we pronounce it as a single smooth word, many adults drop one of the two r's and write the incorrect 'earing'. Remembering that it is literally a ring for the ear keeps the double r in place.
How the word is built
- ear (the organ of hearing)
- ring (a circular band of jewellery)
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