Graduating

How to spell graduating

10 letters · 4 syllables

7 of the 112 people asked to spell graduating in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

How to pronounce graduating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does graduating mean?

1. verbCompleting a degree or course of study and receiving a qualification; also, marking something into regular measured steps.

Graduating in a sentence

• She is graduating from law school this summer.

• After graduating with honours, he moved abroad for work.

Where does graduating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin gradus, meaning 'a step' or 'a pace', and from there 'a stage' or 'a degree' along a scale. Medieval Latin formed the verb graduare, used in universities to mean 'to admit someone to a degree', literally raising them by a step in academic standing. English took up 'graduate' in the early 1400s, first in that scholarly sense of conferring or receiving a degree, and only later in the broader meaning of marking something off in regular steps, as on a measuring jug. The present participle 'graduating' simply adds the -ing ending to that verb. The same gradus root quietly survives in everyday relatives such as 'gradual', 'gradient', and 'grade', all of which carry the underlying idea of moving by measured steps.

How the word is built

• grad- (from gradus: step, degree)
• -ate (verb suffix)
• -ing (present participle)