Infringing

How to spell infringing

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce infringing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does infringing mean?

1. verbActing in breach of a law, agreement, or someone's legal rights.
2. verbGradually intruding upon or limiting another person's freedom, space, or privacy.

Infringing in a sentence

• The rival firm was sued for infringing the registered patent.

• The surveillance policy was criticised for infringing on staff privacy.

• Uploading the film without permission risks infringing the copyright.

• Campaigners argued the curfew was infringing on basic freedoms.

Where does infringing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb infringere, which meant 'to break off' or 'to damage', formed from the prefix in- in the sense of 'against' and the verb frangere, meaning 'to break' or 'to shatter'. By the time it reached English in the fifteenth century, the figurative sense had taken over: not the literal smashing of an object, but the breaking of a law, an oath, or another person's rights. The same frangere root gives us a whole family of breakage words, including 'fragment', 'fracture', and 'fragile', all of which still carry the idea of something snapped apart. The single g in the spelling reflects that Latin g sound that softened into the English 'j' sound, and the present participle simply drops the silent e of 'infringe' before adding -ing, which is the spot where writers sometimes hesitate.

How the word is built

• in- (into, against)
• fring (from Latin frangere: to break)
• -ing (present participle suffix)