Nurturing

How to spell nurturing

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce nurturing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does nurturing mean?

1. adjectiveProviding care, support, and encouragement that helps someone or something grow and develop.
2. nounThe act of caring for and encouraging the growth or development of a person, plant, or idea.

Nurturing in a sentence

• adjective

  The foster family offered a warm and nurturing home.

• noun

  Nurturing young talent takes years of patience and feedback.

• adjective

  A nurturing manager helps junior staff build their confidence.

• noun

  The garden thrived after months of careful nurturing by the volunteers.

Where does nurturing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows out of the verb 'nurture', which English took from Old French 'norriture' or 'nourriture', meaning 'food' or 'nourishment'. That French form descended from the Late Latin 'nutritura', 'a nourishing', built on the Latin verb 'nutrire', which literally meant 'to suckle, feed, or rear'. The same Latin root feeds into a family of familiar relatives such as 'nourish', 'nutrient', and 'nutrition', all carrying the idea of giving sustenance. English adopted 'nurture' in the 1300s, at first strictly about feeding and physically rearing the young, before the meaning broadened to the modern sense of fostering growth, character, or talent. The '-ture' ending preserved from the Latin 'nutritura' is exactly the spelling trap, since the middle is pronounced as a soft, swallowed 'cher' that gives no clue to the written 't-u-r'.

How the word is built

• nurtur- (from nurture: to nourish, care for)
• -ing (present participle / verbal noun)