Incoming

How to spell incoming

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce incoming

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does incoming mean?

1. adjectiveArriving, approaching, or about to be received.
2. nounThings, especially money, mail, or fire, that are arriving or being received.

Incoming in a sentence

• adjective

  The incoming flight from Paris was delayed by an hour.

• noun

  The soldiers took cover as the incoming grew heavier.

• adjective

  She screened every incoming call before answering.

• noun

  The assistant sorts the morning incoming into labelled trays.

Where does incoming come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English compound built from two of the oldest pieces of the language: the preposition and prefix 'in', which meant 'within' or 'into', and the verb 'come', from Old English 'cuman', meaning 'to move toward' or 'to arrive'. Both elements are Germanic, with close cousins surviving in German 'kommen' and Dutch 'komen'. The combined sense, something that is coming in or approaching, was already forming in Middle English, and the modern adjective use settled by the seventeenth century. Because it is a transparent compound, the spelling causes few surprises: the only thing to watch is that 'come' keeps its silent final 'e' in the base verb but loses it before '-ing', giving 'incoming' rather than 'incomeing'. The noun sense, as in mail or fire that arrives, is simply the same word pressed into service as a thing rather than a description.

How the word is built

• in- (in, toward)
• come (root verb)
• -ing (adjective/noun suffix)