Messaging

How to spell messaging

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce messaging

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does messaging mean?

1. nounThe activity of sending written communications, especially short electronic ones through phones or apps.
2. verbPresent participle of 'message': sending someone a written communication electronically.

Messaging in a sentence

• noun

  The company uses a secure messaging platform for all internal chats.

• verb

  She spent the whole train journey messaging her colleagues about the deadline.

• noun

  Constant messaging during meetings has become a real distraction at work.

• verb

  He kept messaging the support team until they replied.

Where does messaging come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb mittere, meaning 'to send', and its past participle missus, 'sent'. From that root Old French formed message, literally 'something sent', and English borrowed it in the 1200s for a communication carried from one person to another. The verb 'to message' grew naturally out of the noun, and 'messaging' is its present-participle and gerund form, which only became an everyday word in the late twentieth century with the rise of pagers, texts, and chat apps. The same mittere root quietly powers a large family of relatives, including 'mission', 'transmit', 'missile', and 'admit', all of which involve sending or letting go. A common spelling trap here is the contrast between the doubled s and the single g: the final e of 'message' is dropped before -ing, so it is 'messaging', never 'messageing'.

How the word is built

• mess- (from Latin missus: sent)
• -age (noun suffix)
• -ing (verbal/noun suffix)