Funding

How to spell funding

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce funding

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does funding mean?

1. nounMoney provided, usually by a government, organisation, or investor, to support a particular purpose or activity.

Funding in a sentence

• The research team applied for additional funding to extend the trial.

• Government funding for rural libraries was cut again this year.

Where does funding come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin fundus, which literally meant the 'bottom' or 'base' of something, and by extension a piece of landed property or an estate. From that root English took 'fund' in the 1600s, originally meaning a foundation or store laid by for some purpose, and very soon a reserve of money set aside for a use. The verb 'to fund' followed, meaning to supply money for a project or to convert a debt into a long-term standing arrangement. By adding the everyday suffix -ing, English formed 'funding', the act of providing money or the money itself, a term that became especially common in finance, government, and research from the 1800s onward. The same fundus root underlies words such as 'foundation', 'fundamental', and 'profound', all of which share the idea of a base lying underneath.

How the word is built

• fund (a stock of money, from Latin fundus 'bottom, foundation')
• -ing (noun-forming suffix)