Emerging

How to spell emerging

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce emerging

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does emerging mean?

1. adjectiveIn the early stages of development and becoming increasingly important or noticeable.
2. verbPresent participle of emerge: coming out into view or becoming known.

Emerging in a sentence

• adjective

  The fund invests heavily in emerging markets across Asia and Africa.

• verb

  The swimmer was emerging from the cold water at dawn.

• adjective

  The company is betting on emerging technologies like quantum computing.

• verb

  Fresh details about the deal were slowly emerging in the press.

Where does emerging come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb emergere, which literally meant 'to rise out' or 'to come up from being submerged', built from the prefix ex- meaning 'out of' and mergere meaning 'to dip' or 'to plunge under water'. The same mergere root sits inside the modern words 'submerge' and 'immerse', so the underlying picture is always one of something dipping below and then rising back into view. English adopted 'emerge' in the early 1600s, originally describing things physically coming up out of water or darkness, and the present participle 'emerging' soon broadened to mean anything newly appearing or developing into prominence. The single 'm' followed by the 'er' sound is the quiet spelling trap, since the word looks as though it might double a letter the way many participles do. Today it is used constantly in business and science writing, as in 'emerging markets' and 'emerging technologies', meanings that grew directly out of that original sense of rising into sight.

How the word is built

• e- (out, from ex-)
• merg (to dip, plunge, or sink)
• -ing (present participle/adjective suffix)