Hitting

How to spell hitting

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hitting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hitting mean?

1. verbPresent participle of 'hit': striking something or someone, or reaching a target or level.

Hitting in a sentence

• The contractor warned that hitting the pipe would flood the basement.

• Sales are finally hitting the targets we set in January.

Where does hitting come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The base verb 'hit' comes from the Old Norse 'hitta', which meant 'to come upon, to meet with, or to find', a far gentler sense than today's. Norse settlers brought the word into late Old English, where it gradually shifted from 'meeting' something to 'striking' it, perhaps because to reach a target is to find it. The present participle 'hitting' doubles the final 't' before adding '-ing', following the regular English rule for a short stressed vowel followed by a single consonant. That doubling is the spelling trap: writers who picture the bare word 'hit' sometimes forget the second 't'. The original 'find/meet' meaning still survives faintly in phrases like 'hit upon an idea', where you stumble onto something rather than strike it.

How the word is built

• hit (strike)
• -t- (doubled consonant)
• -ing (present participle suffix)