Menacing

How to spell menacing

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce menacing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does menacing mean?

1. adjectiveSuggesting the presence of danger or an intention to cause harm.

Menacing in a sentence

• The guard dog gave a low, menacing growl as we approached the gate.

• Dark, menacing clouds gathered over the coast before the storm broke.

Where does menacing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb minari, which meant 'to threaten' and was connected to minae, the word for the jutting points or overhanging crags that seemed to loom dangerously. From minari came the noun minacia, meaning 'a threat', which passed into Old French as menace before English adopted both the noun and its verb during the 1300s. The adjective 'menacing' grew naturally from the verb 'to menace', describing anything that gives off an air of threat or danger. The same Latin root survives in the more bookish word 'minatory', also meaning threatening, and the spelling trap lies in the soft middle c followed by the unstressed schwa, since writers may be tempted to spell it with an s or to double letters that stay single.

How the word is built

• menac- (from Latin minacia: threat)
• -ing (adjective/participle suffix)