Humming

How to spell humming

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce humming

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does humming mean?

1. verbProducing a low, steady, continuous sound, or singing a tune with the lips closed.
2. adjectiveFull of activity, energy, or busy movement.

Humming in a sentence

• verb

  She kept humming the same tune while she washed the dishes.

• adjective

  By lunchtime the market was humming with shoppers and traders.

• verb

  The old refrigerator was humming loudly all through the night.

• adjective

  The office was humming as the team rushed to meet the deadline.

Where does humming come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the present participle of the verb 'hum', which is echoic in origin, meaning it imitates the very sound it names. English has used 'hum' since the late 1300s to describe the low, continuous murmur made by bees, machines, or a person singing with closed lips, and similar imitative forms appear across the Germanic languages. The doubled 'm' in 'humming' follows the standard English spelling rule: a short, stressed single vowel before a final single consonant means that consonant doubles when a vowel-starting suffix is added, just as in 'running' and 'swimming'. Over time the word also gained the figurative sense of a place being lively or busy, as if buzzing with activity. The spelling trap is purely the doubling; the root itself is one of the simplest sound-words in the language.

How the word is built

• hum (imitative root: low murmuring sound)
• -m- (doubled consonant before suffix)
• -ing (present participle/gerund)