Juggling

How to spell juggling

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce juggling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does juggling mean?

1. verbContinuously tossing and catching several objects so that most are in the air at once.
2. verbCoping with several tasks, roles, or responsibilities at the same time.

Juggling in a sentence

• The street performer kept five clubs in the air while juggling.

• She was juggling a full-time job, evening classes, and two young children.

• He learned the basics of juggling with three tennis balls over the weekend.

• The manager spent the quarter juggling tight deadlines and a shrinking budget.

Where does juggling come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin verb iocari, meaning 'to jest' or 'to joke', which itself grew out of iocus, the Latin word for a joke or a piece of fun. This passed into Old French as jogler, used for a wandering entertainer who told jokes, sang, and performed tricks, and from there it entered Middle English in the 1300s as the verb 'juggle'. At first to juggle meant to entertain with banter or sleight of hand, and only later did it narrow to the familiar sense of tossing and catching several objects in continuous motion. The same playful Latin root survives in 'jocular' and in the old word 'juggler', and the figurative sense of keeping many demands in the air, such as juggling work and family, grew naturally from the image of the performer. The spelling trap is the doubled 'g' inherited from 'juggle' plus the dropped 'e' before the -ing ending.

How the word is built

• juggle (to keep objects in motion through the air)
• -ing (present participle / gerund); the silent 'e' of juggle is dropped before -ing