Inducing

How to spell inducing

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce inducing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does inducing mean?

1. verbBringing about a particular state, action, or result, or persuading someone to do something.

Inducing in a sentence

• The doctors discussed inducing labour because the baby was overdue.

• The warm room and quiet music were inducing a deep sense of calm.

Where does inducing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'induce', which comes from the Latin inducere, meaning 'to lead in' or 'to bring on'. That verb joined the prefix in- ('in' or 'into') with ducere, the Latin verb meaning 'to lead', so the literal sense was 'leading something into being'. English took it up in the fifteenth century, partly through Old French, and it carried both the idea of persuading a person to act and the idea of causing a physical effect to occur. The same ducere root quietly powers a whole family of familiar English words, including 'conduct', 'produce', 'reduce', and even the noble title 'duke', all of which involve some kind of leading. Knowing that the middle of the word is the 'duc' that means 'lead' helps fix the spelling, since the c is hard and the ending is simply -ing.

How the word is built

• in- (in, into)
• duc (lead, from Latin ducere)
• -ing (present participle suffix)