Healing

How to spell healing

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce healing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does healing mean?

1. nounThe natural process by which the body or mind recovers from injury, illness, or distress.
2. adjectiveTending to soothe, restore, or promote recovery.

Healing in a sentence

• noun

  The surgeon said the wound was showing good signs of healing.

• adjective

  The ointment has a gentle healing effect on sore skin.

• noun

  Emotional healing after a difficult year can take many months.

• adjective

  A quiet weekend away had a remarkably healing influence on her.

Where does healing come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English verb hælan, which literally meant 'to make whole' and was closely tied to hal, the source of our modern 'whole', 'hale', and even the greeting 'hello' by way of 'health'. The underlying idea was always restoration: to heal someone was to return them to a whole, sound condition, in body or in spirit. The form 'healing' is simply that ancient verb with the -ing ending that turns an action into a noun or a describing word, a pattern English has used since Anglo-Saxon times. Because the root vowel was once long, the spelling keeps the 'ea' digraph rather than a single 'e', and that 'ea' is the small trap, since the word sounds like a long 'ee'. Knowing that 'heal', 'health', 'hale', and 'whole' are all relatives makes the spelling far easier to hold in memory.

How the word is built

• heal (from Old English hælan: to make whole)
• -ing (noun/adjective suffix)