Hopping

How to spell hopping

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hopping

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hopping mean?

1. verbMoving along in short springing jumps, often on one foot.
2. adjectiveInformal word for a place that is lively, busy, and full of activity.

Hopping in a sentence

• verb

  The toddler kept hopping across the kitchen tiles on one foot.

• adjective

  By midnight the downtown bar was absolutely hopping with customers.

• verb

  A small bird was hopping along the fence in search of crumbs.

• adjective

  The market square was hopping on the morning of the festival.

Where does hopping come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word goes back to the Old English verb 'hoppian', which meant to leap, spring, or dance, and which is related to similar words across the old Germanic languages such as the Middle Dutch 'hoppen'. From the very start it carried the idea of a small, bouncing movement rather than a long stride, which is why we still talk of a bird or a child hopping rather than running. The present-participle form is built by adding '-ing', and because 'hop' ends in a single vowel followed by a single consonant in a stressed syllable, English doubles that final 'p' before the ending. That doubling is the whole spelling story: 'hopping' (with two p's) keeps the short, clipped vowel of 'hop', whereas 'hoping' (with one p) belongs to 'hope' and keeps the long vowel. The informal sense of a place being lively and full of activity grew naturally from the picture of people dancing and bouncing about.

How the word is built

• hop (to leap)
• -p- (doubled consonant after a short vowel)
• -ing (present participle suffix)