Escalating

How to spell escalating

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce escalating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does escalating mean?

1. verbIncreasing, intensifying, or growing rapidly to a higher or more serious level.

Escalating in a sentence

• The company blamed escalating fuel prices for the higher delivery charge.

• Diplomats worked through the night to stop the dispute from escalating into open conflict.

Where does escalating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin scala, meaning a ladder or a flight of steps, the same root that gives us 'scale' and 'staircase'. In the early twentieth century an American company coined 'escalator' as a trademark for the moving staircase, blending scala with the existing word 'elevator'. From that brand name English then performed a back-formation, inventing the verb 'escalate' as if 'escalator' had been built from it. At first 'escalate' simply meant to travel up by escalator, but during the Cold War of the 1950s it took on its now-dominant figurative sense of stepping conflict or costs up to a higher and more dangerous level. The present participle 'escalating' keeps the single 'l' and the '-ate' spine of that root, which is the spot writers most often second-guess.

How the word is built

• escal- (from Latin scala: ladder, flight of steps)
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)
• -ing (present participle)