Fielding

How to spell fielding

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fielding

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fielding mean?

1. nounThe act of catching or stopping the ball in cricket or baseball while the other side is batting.
2. nounThe act of dealing with or responding to questions, calls, or requests as they arrive.

Fielding in a sentence

• Sharp fielding saved at least ten runs during the match.

• His calm fielding of the reporters' questions impressed the panel.

• The coach praised the team for their tidy fielding in the outfield.

• Fielding so many customer calls left her exhausted by lunchtime.

Where does fielding come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word 'field' descends from the Old English 'feld', meaning open country or cleared land free of woodland, and it shares a Germanic ancestry with the Dutch 'veld' and German 'Feld'. For centuries it referred only to a stretch of ground, but by the time of organised ball games it took on a sporting sense: the players positioned around the playing area were said to be 'in the field', and to 'field' became a verb for catching or stopping the ball. The gerund 'fielding' grew from this, naming the whole act of defending in cricket and baseball. From there it spread figuratively to handling things that come at you, as in fielding questions or fielding phone calls. The spelling trap sits in the root 'field' itself, where the letters follow the familiar 'i before e' pattern, so it is easy to slip and write 'feilding'.

How the word is built

• field (open land; also the defensive side in a game)
• -ing (verb/gerund suffix)