Including

How to spell including

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce including

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does including mean?

1. prepositionUsed to introduce one or more parts or examples that form part of a larger whole.

Including in a sentence

• The package covers all costs, including flights and meals.

• Several staff members, including the manager, attended the review.

Where does including come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin verb includere, meaning 'to shut in' or 'to enclose', which was built from the prefix in- ('in' or 'into') and claudere, meaning 'to close' or 'to shut'. The literal idea was that to include something was to physically wall it in, an image that softened over time into the modern, abstract sense of counting something as part of a larger group. English took the verb 'include' in the early 1400s, and the participle form 'including' came to serve as a preposition introducing examples or components. The same claudere root quietly hides inside many familiar relatives, among them 'conclude' (to shut up an argument), 'exclude' (to shut out), and 'seclude' (to shut away). Recognising that the central element is clud, not 'clood' or 'cluid', helps fix the single, simple vowel that some writers second-guess.

How the word is built

• in- (in, into)
• clud (from Latin claudere: to close, shut)
• -ing (present participle suffix)