Missing

How to spell missing

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce missing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does missing mean?

1. adjectiveNot able to be found, or absent from the expected place.

Missing in a sentence

• The missing keys turned up under the sofa cushion.

• Police launched a search for the missing hiker.

Where does missing come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English verb 'missan', meaning 'to fail to hit' or 'to fail to find', which described an arrow or blow that did not strike its target. That Germanic root also gave related forms in Old Norse and Dutch, all carrying the idea of failing or going astray. By adding the present participle ending '-ing', English formed the adjective 'missing', used from around the 1500s onwards to describe a person or thing that is absent or cannot be located. The everyday sense of a 'missing person' or 'missing piece' developed naturally from this notion of something that has failed to be found. The spelling trap is the doubled 's': the base verb 'miss' already ends in a double 's', and that pair is simply kept when '-ing' is attached.

How the word is built

• miss (to fail to find or reach)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)