Offering

How to spell offering

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce offering

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does offering mean?

1. nounSomething that is presented, given, or made available, such as a product, contribution, or proposal.
2. nounA gift or contribution presented as part of worship or a religious service.

Offering in a sentence

• The bakery added a vegan offering to its summer menu.

• The congregation placed a small offering in the collection plate.

• The company's latest software offering impressed the review panel.

• The temple recorded each offering in a leather-bound ledger.

Where does offering come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows from the verb 'offer', which English took from the Latin offerre, meaning 'to bring before' or 'to present'. That Latin verb combined ob- ('toward') with ferre ('to carry or bring'), so the literal idea was carrying something toward another person to lay it before them. The verb entered Old English as offrian, used at first in the religious sense of presenting a gift or sacrifice to God, and it was later reinforced by Old French offrir after the Norman Conquest. Adding the native -ing ending turned the action of offering into the thing offered, whether a sacrifice in worship, a sum dropped into a collection plate, or a product put up for sale. The double f, which trips up some writers, simply preserves the Latin offerre spelling, and the same ferre root survives in everyday relatives such as 'transfer' and 'refer'.

How the word is built

• offer (from Latin offerre: to present, bring before)
• -ing (noun-forming suffix)