Fighting

How to spell fighting

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fighting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fighting mean?

1. verbEngaging in physical combat or a sustained struggle or argument.
2. adjectiveShowing readiness or determination to compete or struggle.

Fighting in a sentence

• verb

  The two countries had been fighting over the border for years.

• adjective

  The team came back with real fighting spirit in the second half.

• verb

  The couple kept fighting about money every weekend.

• adjective

  After the diagnosis she kept a fighting attitude throughout treatment.

Where does fighting come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base verb comes from the Old English feohtan, meaning 'to fight, contend, or do battle', a native Germanic word with close cousins in Old High German fehtan and Dutch vechten. The form 'fighting' simply adds the productive -ing ending, which Old English used to build verbal nouns and which later also served as the present participle. The notorious 'gh' in the spelling is a fossil: it once represented a real throaty consonant (a sound like the 'ch' in Scottish 'loch') that was pronounced in the older feoht- forms but fell silent in most English over the late medieval period. That lost sound is exactly why the letters 'gh' linger uselessly in 'fight', 'night', 'light', and 'right', a whole family of words that drifted away from their spelling. Because the cluster is no longer heard, writers must remember it from habit rather than from sound, which is the small trap this everyday word still holds.

How the word is built

• fight (from Old English feohtan: to contend, do battle)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)