Organising

How to spell organising

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce organising

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does organising mean?

1. verbArranging people, tasks, or things into an orderly, planned structure, or coordinating an event.

Organising in a sentence

• She spent the weekend organising the spare room into proper storage.

• The committee is organising the annual conference for delegates from three countries.

Where does organising come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This is the present participle of the verb 'organise', whose root traces back to the Greek 'organon', meaning a tool, an instrument, or an organ of the body, something through which work is carried out. Latin took this up as 'organum', and the medieval Latin verb 'organizare' meant to furnish something with organs or, more figuratively, to arrange parts into a working whole. English borrowed the verb through French 'organiser' in the late 1400s, at first in the bodily sense and soon afterwards in the familiar sense of putting things into a planned, orderly arrangement. The British spelling keeps the '-ise' ending that mirrors the French source, where American and Canadian usage generally prefer '-ize'; this is the chief thing to remember when writing the British form. The same 'organon' root still sits inside 'organ', 'organic', and 'organism', all of which share the idea of working parts joined into a functioning whole.

How the word is built

• organ- (from Greek organon: tool, instrument)
• -ise (verb-forming suffix)
• -ing (present participle ending)

British and American spelling

Organising is the British spelling. American English spells it organizing.