Narrowing

How to spell narrowing

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce narrowing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does narrowing mean?

1. verbBecoming or making something less wide, or reducing a range or gap.
2. nounA part where something becomes narrower, or the medical reduction in width of a passage.

Narrowing in a sentence

• verb

  The lane is narrowing sharply just past the bridge.

• noun

  The scan revealed a narrowing of the main artery near the heart.

• verb

  The gap between the two leading candidates is narrowing every week.

• noun

  A slight narrowing in the river forces the boats into single file.

Where does narrowing come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows out of the Old English adjective nearu, which meant tight, confined, or limited in width, and which also carried a figurative sense of distress or being hemmed in. That same root sits behind the modern adjective narrow and is distantly related to words in other Germanic languages for closeness and confinement. The -ing ending is the native English suffix used to form present participles and verbal nouns, so narrowing simply means the act or process of becoming or making narrow. The double r in the spelling reflects the short vowel in the first syllable, a pattern English keeps to stop the word being read with a long a. Although the meaning has broadened over the centuries to cover figurative narrowing of choices, margins, and gaps, the core idea of something growing tighter has stayed remarkably stable since Anglo-Saxon times.

How the word is built

• narrow (from Old English nearu: tight, confined)
• -ing (verb/noun suffix)