Fueling

How to spell fueling

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fueling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fueling mean?

1. verbSupplying a vehicle, engine, or fire with fuel; also, figuratively, intensifying or driving something on.

Fueling in a sentence

• The crew was fueling the jet while passengers waited at the gate.

• Rising rents are fueling public anger across the city.

Where does fueling come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The base word 'fuel' came into English in the 1300s from Old French 'fouaille' or 'feuaille', meaning material for a fire, especially the wood a tenant was allowed to gather. That word traces back through Vulgar Latin 'focalia' to the Latin 'focus', which literally meant 'hearth' or 'fireplace'. The same 'focus' root sits inside the modern English 'focus' and 'focal', a reminder that a hearth was once the central gathering point of a home. Over time 'fuel' broadened from firewood to any substance burned to produce heat or power, and figuratively to anything that feeds or intensifies a feeling. The form 'fueling' adds the verbal '-ing' ending; in American spelling the single 'l' is kept because the stress falls on the first syllable, whereas British and Canadian writers double it to 'fuelling', and that single-versus-double 'l' is the whole spelling trap.

How the word is built

• fuel (material burned for energy, from Latin focus 'hearth')
• -ing (present participle / verbal noun suffix)