Exhausting

How to spell exhausting

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce exhausting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does exhausting mean?

1. adjectiveSo physically or mentally tiring that it drains your energy completely.
2. verbPresent participle of exhaust: using something up entirely or draining a person of strength.

Exhausting in a sentence

• adjective

  The long commute on crowded trains is utterly exhausting.

• verb

  The factory is steadily exhausting its reserves of raw material.

• adjective

  Caring for a newborn around the clock can be exhausting.

• verb

  The climbers were exhausting the last of their water supply.

Where does exhausting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb exhaurire, which combined ex- meaning 'out' with haurire meaning 'to draw off' or 'to drain', so the literal sense was to empty a vessel by drawing every last drop out of it. English adopted the verb exhaust in the sixteenth century, first in the very physical sense of draining or using something up completely, such as emptying a mine of its ore or a purse of its coins. From there the meaning broadened to draining a person of energy, which gives us the modern adjective exhausting for anything that wears you out. The spelling preserves the Latin combination 'exhaus', and the silent h after the x is exactly the letter writers tend to drop, while the 'au' vowel is easily misheard as a simple 'o'. The related noun 'exhaust' on a car works from the same image: spent gases being drawn out of the engine.

How the word is built

• ex- (out)
• haust (draw, drain)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)