Holding

How to spell holding

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce holding

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does holding mean?

1. nounA piece of land, or an amount of shares or other assets, that a person or company owns.
2. verbPresent participle of hold: grasping, supporting, or keeping something in place.

Holding in a sentence

• noun

  Her largest holding in the portfolio was a block of bank shares.

• verb

  She was holding the railing tightly as the train lurched.

• noun

  The farmer expanded his holding by buying the neighbouring field.

• verb

  The bolts were holding the shelf to the wall.

Where does holding come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows directly from the Old English verb healdan, meaning 'to keep, to grasp, or to guard', which traces back to a Germanic root shared with the Dutch houden and the German halten. The verb originally carried a strong sense of physically gripping something, but it broadened early into the idea of retaining, possessing, or controlling. Adding the suffix -ing produced first a verbal form (the act of keeping) and then a concrete noun for a thing that is kept, especially land or property, a use recorded in English since the medieval period. From the world of farming, where a holding was a piece of leased or tenanted land, the meaning extended to financial assets such as shares and investments. Because the spelling sits squarely on the plain verb hold, it rarely trips writers, the only point to watch being that the silent 'l' is preserved and no letter is doubled before -ing.

How the word is built

• hold (Old English healdan: to grasp, keep)
• -ing (noun/gerund suffix)