Facing

How to spell facing

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce facing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does facing mean?

1. verbConfronting, dealing with, or being positioned toward something or someone.
2. nounA layer of material used to cover or finish a surface, as in building or dressmaking.

Facing in a sentence

• verb

  The company is facing a serious cash-flow problem this quarter.

• noun

  The architect specified a stone facing over the concrete blocks.

• verb

  Our hotel room was facing the harbour, so the view was wonderful.

• noun

  She stitched a neat facing around the neckline to hide the raw edge.

Where does facing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows from the noun 'face', which English took from Old French 'face' in the 1200s, itself from the Latin 'facies', meaning 'form, appearance, or countenance'. The Latin root carried the broad sense of the outward look or surface of a thing, not just a human visage, which is why we can speak of the face of a cliff or the face of a coin. By adding the English suffix '-ing', the word came to describe both the action of turning toward or confronting something and, as a noun, a covering layer applied to a surface. The construction and dressmaking sense (a facing of brick or fabric) leans directly on that older 'surface' meaning. A useful spelling note: because 'face' ends in a silent 'e', that 'e' is dropped before adding '-ing', giving 'facing' rather than 'faceing'.

How the word is built

• face (front, surface)
• -ing (verb/noun suffix; the silent e of 'face' is dropped before -ing)