Leaning

How to spell leaning

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce leaning

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does leaning mean?

1. verbPresent participle of lean: bending or resting at an angle against something.
2. nounA preference, bias, or inclination toward a particular view or choice.

Leaning in a sentence

• verb

  The old fence was leaning dangerously toward the road.

• noun

  His political leaning became obvious during the debate.

• verb

  She was leaning against the doorway while she waited.

• noun

  The committee showed a clear leaning toward the cheaper proposal.

Where does leaning come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English verb hleonian, meaning to bend, recline, or rest against something, which itself traces back to a Germanic root shared with related words in Dutch and German for sloping or inclining. That same ancient root reaches further back to an Indo-European source meaning to bend, which is also the ancestor of the Latin clinare, the element hidden inside words like recline and incline. The physical sense of tilting or resting against a support came first, and from there English speakers naturally extended it to the figure of the mind: a person who 'leans' toward an opinion has a tendency or inclination in that direction. The suffix -ing turns the verb into both a present participle (the action of tilting) and a noun (a preference or bias). Because the spelling simply stacks the plain word lean onto -ing, the only thing to watch is keeping the 'ea' vowel pair intact, since the long 'ee' sound tempts some writers toward 'eening'.

How the word is built

• lean (from Old English hleonian: to bend or recline)
• -ing (verb/noun suffix)