Fitting

How to spell fitting

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fitting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fitting mean?

1. adjectiveAppropriate or suitable for a particular situation or occasion.
2. nounA small standard part used to join, attach, or adapt something, especially in plumbing or wiring.
3. nounAn occasion of trying on a garment so it can be adjusted to the body.

Fitting in a sentence

• adjective

  A quiet dinner seemed a fitting way to mark her retirement.

• noun

  The plumber replaced a leaking fitting under the kitchen sink.

• noun

  The bride booked a final fitting for her dress the week before the wedding.

• adjective

  The closing speech struck a fitting note for such a solemn ceremony.

• noun

  Every brass fitting in the bathroom matched the new taps.

• noun

  His tailor scheduled a second fitting to take in the jacket.

Where does fitting come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the verb 'fit', whose earliest recorded English uses appear in the late Middle Ages around the 1400s, when 'fitten' meant to be suitable or to marshal something into proper order. The deeper origins are genuinely murky, and scholars cannot trace it cleanly to a single parent language, though it may connect to a Germanic notion of arranging or joining things neatly. From the sense 'to be the right size or shape', the present participle 'fitting' developed both an adjective meaning 'suitable or proper' and a noun meaning 'a small part made to join or attach to something'. The clothing sense, an occasion of trying on a garment so it can be adjusted, follows the same idea of making something the correct shape for the body. The spelling trap is the doubled t: because 'fit' ends in a single vowel plus consonant, the consonant doubles before -ing, giving 'fitting' rather than 'fiting'.

How the word is built

• fit (root: to be the right size or suitable)
• -ting (from -t
• -ing, present participle/noun suffix; the single t doubles to keep the short vowel)