Jogging

How to spell jogging

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce jogging

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does jogging mean?

1. nounThe activity of running at a steady, gentle pace for exercise.
2. verbRunning at a slow, steady pace; the continuous form of jog.

Jogging in a sentence

• noun

  Jogging in the park each morning improved her fitness.

• verb

  She was jogging along the riverside when the rain started.

• noun

  He took up jogging to manage his stress after work.

• verb

  They kept jogging steadily despite the cold weather.

Where does jogging come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The verb 'jog' first appears in English in the late 1500s, probably as a playful variant of the slightly older 'shog', which meant to jolt, jog along, or move with a bumpy motion. Its exact origin is uncertain and likely imitative, suggesting the rhythmic shaking of a body moving unevenly. For centuries 'jog' simply meant to nudge, shake, or trudge along at a slow trot, which survives in the phrase 'to jog someone's memory'. The modern sense of running at a steady, unhurried pace for exercise grew in the twentieth century and exploded into common use during the running and fitness boom of the 1960s and 1970s, when 'jogging' became the standard word for recreational running. The doubled g in the spelling reflects the regular English rule that a single short vowel followed by a single consonant doubles that consonant before -ing, which is the main trap learners must remember.

How the word is built

• jog (to run at a steady, gentle pace)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix, with doubled g)