Going

How to spell going

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce going

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does going mean?

1. verbThe present participle of 'go', describing movement, travel, or an action in progress.
2. nounThe state of the ground or the difficulty of progress in a task.
3. adjectiveCurrent or prevailing, especially of a price or rate at the present time.

Going in a sentence

• verb

  We are going to the airport early in the morning.

• noun

  The going was heavy on the muddy track after the storm.

• adjective

  The going rate for a freelance editor has risen this year.

• verb

  She kept going even after everyone else had quit.

• noun

  The negotiations made for tough going over several long weeks.

• adjective

  They sold the car for the going market price.

Where does going come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English verb gan, meaning simply 'to move from one place to another' or 'to travel', which was common across the Germanic languages and is related to Dutch gaan and German gehen. The form 'going' is the present participle, built with the suffix -ing that Old English used to turn verbs into nouns and ongoing-action forms. Curiously, the verb 'go' has always borrowed its past tense from a completely different root, giving us 'went' (originally the past of 'wend'), which is why the verb feels so irregular today. Over the centuries 'going' broadened beyond movement to describe the condition of the ground a traveller crosses, as in 'heavy going', and then the current state or rate of things, as in 'the going rate'. The spelling is straightforward and has stayed remarkably stable, keeping the simple go plus -ing pattern intact.

How the word is built

• go (Old English gan: to move, travel)
• -ing (present participle / verbal noun suffix)