Emptying

How to spell emptying

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce emptying

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does emptying mean?

1. verbIn the process of removing all the contents from a container, space, or place.

Emptying in a sentence

• Emptying the dishwasher takes only a couple of minutes each morning.

• The cleaners were emptying the office bins before locking up.

Where does emptying come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is the present participle of 'empty', which traces back to the Old English 'aemtig' (also spelled 'aemettig'), meaning 'at leisure, unoccupied, or vacant'. That adjective grew from the noun 'aemetta', which meant 'leisure' or 'free time', so the original idea was less about a hollow container and more about a person or space being free and idle. Over the centuries the sense narrowed to describe something that contains nothing. A curious detail is the letter 'p': it was never in the early forms but crept in naturally because the mouth tends to slip a 'p' sound between 'm' and 't', and that intrusive 'p' eventually settled into the spelling. Remembering that the 'p' sits quietly between the 'm' and the 't' is exactly what keeps 'emptying' spelled correctly.

How the word is built

• empt- (from empty: unoccupied)
• -y (adjective base)
• -ing (present participle/gerund)