Frying

How to spell frying

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce frying

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does frying mean?

1. verbCooking food in hot fat or oil over heat.

Frying in a sentence

• The smell of frying bacon filled the kitchen.

• She is frying onions for the sauce.

Where does frying come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the present participle of the verb 'fry', which English took from the Old French 'frire', meaning 'to fry' or 'to cook in hot fat'. That French verb descended in turn from the Latin 'frigere', which meant 'to roast' or 'to fry', a word that also lies behind cooking terms in several Romance languages. English had adopted 'fry' by the 1200s, and the '-ing' ending then formed the participle and gerund in the ordinary native way. The spelling keeps the 'y' of 'fry' rather than swapping it for an 'i', so the join becomes 'fry' plus 'ing' rather than 'fri' plus 'ing'; that simple rule (keep the 'y' before '-ing') is the small point worth remembering, since 'fry' does change its 'y' to 'i' in other forms such as 'fried' and 'fries'.

How the word is built

• fry (to cook in hot fat)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)