Gearing

How to spell gearing

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce gearing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gearing mean?

1. nounThe ratio of a company's borrowed money to its own equity; financial leverage.
2. nounA set or arrangement of gears that transmits motion in a machine.

Gearing in a sentence

• High gearing left the firm vulnerable when interest rates rose.

• The mechanic stripped the gearing to replace a worn cog.

• The analyst warned that the company's gearing was far above the industry average.

• A louder hum from the gearing suggested the bearings were failing.

Where does gearing come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The base word 'gear' came into English from Old Norse 'gervi' or 'gorvi', meaning 'equipment, apparatus, or clothing', which is related to the Old English 'gearwe' meaning 'preparation' or 'dress'. The underlying sense was simply readiness or the things one needs to get something done. By the medieval period 'gear' had narrowed in mechanical contexts to mean the toothed wheels that transmit motion in a machine, since these were the essential 'equipment' that made a mechanism work. The suffix '-ing' turns the verb 'to gear' (to fit with gears, or to connect and drive) into a noun naming the action or arrangement. In the twentieth century British and Commonwealth finance borrowed the mechanical image: just as gears multiply force, borrowed money 'gears up' the returns on a company's own capital, so 'gearing' became the standard term for the ratio of debt to equity.

How the word is built

• gear (a toothed wheel; equipment)
• -ing (noun-forming suffix)