Liking

How to spell liking

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce liking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does liking mean?

1. nounA feeling of fondness for something or someone, or a personal preference or taste.

Liking in a sentence

• She took an immediate liking to her new colleague.

• The steak was grilled exactly to his liking.

Where does liking come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows directly from the Old English verb lician, which meant 'to please' or 'to be agreeable', so an older sentence would say that a thing 'likes me' rather than that I like it. That verb traces back to a Germanic root meaning 'form' or 'body', the same source that gives us the suffix '-ly' and the word 'like' itself in the sense of 'similar'. The noun 'liking', meaning a feeling of fondness or a settled preference, was formed by adding the '-ing' ending and has been in steady English use since the medieval period. The familiar phrase 'to one's liking' simply means agreeable to one's taste, a sense that preserves the original idea of something being pleasing. The only real spelling point is that the silent 'e' of 'like' is dropped before the '-ing' is added, leaving 'liking' rather than 'likeing'.

How the word is built

• like (to be pleased by, from Old English lician)
• -ing (forming a noun of state or the present participle)