Hugging

How to spell hugging

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hugging

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hugging mean?

1. verbHolding someone or something closely in the arms as a sign of affection or comfort.

Hugging in a sentence

• She calmed the frightened child by hugging him gently.

• The two old friends were hugging on the platform when the train arrived.

Where does hugging come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The base word 'hug' first appears in English in the late 1500s, and its earlier history is genuinely uncertain. The most popular suggestion links it to the Old Norse verb 'hugga', meaning 'to comfort, soothe or console', which fits the warm, reassuring sense of the modern word rather well. That Norse verb in turn relates to 'hugr', meaning 'mind' or 'mood', so the original idea may have been about easing someone's feelings rather than physically holding them. The form 'hugging' is simply the present participle: because 'hug' ends in a single consonant after a short, stressed vowel, English doubles that consonant before adding '-ing', which is exactly the spelling trap here. The same doubling rule explains why we write 'running' and 'sitting' rather than 'runing' or 'siting'.

How the word is built

• hug (to clasp in the arms)
• -g- (doubled consonant after a short stressed vowel)
• -ing (present participle/gerund suffix)