Exciting

How to spell exciting

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce exciting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does exciting mean?

1. adjectiveCausing eager interest, enthusiasm, or a pleasurable sense of anticipation.

Exciting in a sentence

• The new job offer was the most exciting news of the year.

• They planned an exciting trip across three countries.

Where does exciting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb excitare, meaning 'to call out, rouse, or stir up', which was built from ex- 'out' and citare 'to set in motion or summon', itself a frequentative of ciere 'to move'. The same citare root quietly underlies a whole family of English words, including 'cite', 'recite', and 'incite', all of which carry a sense of calling forth or stirring. English took 'excite' through Old French exciter in the 1300s, originally meaning to provoke or instigate an action, and only later did it soften into the modern emotional sense of arousing eager interest or pleasurable feeling. The present participle 'exciting' became a settled adjective by the 1800s. The single c followed by a soft i is the usual spelling snag here, since writers sometimes want to double it or insert an extra letter.

How the word is built

• ex- (out, thoroughly)
• cit (from Latin citare: to rouse, set in motion)
• -ing (adjective/present participle suffix)