Inspecting

How to spell inspecting

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce inspecting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does inspecting mean?

1. verbLooking at something closely and carefully to judge its condition or check for faults.

Inspecting in a sentence

• The surveyor spent the morning inspecting the roof for storm damage.

• She was inspecting each invoice before approving the payment.

Where does inspecting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word goes back to the Latin verb inspicere, which literally meant 'to look into' or 'to look at', formed from the prefix in- meaning 'into' and the verb specere meaning 'to look'. Latin produced a frequentative form, inspectare, meaning 'to look at repeatedly or closely', and from its past participle inspectus English drew the verb 'inspect' in the early 1600s. The -ing here is simply the English present-participle ending added to that verb, giving the action of examining something carefully. The same specere root quietly powers a large family of English words, including 'spectator', 'spectacle', 'suspect', and 'respect', all of which involve some form of looking. Remembering that the middle is 'spect' (the same chunk as in 'inspector' and 'spectacles') keeps the spelling steady, since the trap is hearing the unstressed first syllable rather than the clear visual root.

How the word is built

• in- (into, upon)
• spect (from specere: to look)
• -ing (present participle suffix)