Pacing

How to spell pacing

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce pacing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does pacing mean?

1. nounThe speed or rhythm at which something develops, proceeds, or is managed.
2. verbWalking back and forth across a space, often out of nervousness or impatience.

Pacing in a sentence

• noun

  The editor felt the pacing of the novel dragged in the middle chapters.

• verb

  He kept pacing the hallway while waiting for the test results.

• noun

  Careful pacing helped the marathon runner conserve energy for the final miles.

• verb

  She was pacing the kitchen floor, rehearsing her interview answers.

Where does pacing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word grows from the noun 'pace', which English took from the Old French 'pas', meaning a step or stride. That French word descends in turn from the Latin 'passus', literally 'a step' or 'a stretch of the leg in walking', a noun formed from 'pandere', meaning 'to stretch out'. The Romans even used 'passus' as a unit of distance, the double step, which lay behind their measurement of the mile (mille passus, a thousand paces). English began using 'pace' in the 1200s and later treated it as a verb, so 'pacing' is simply the '-ing' form describing the act of stepping, or by extension the rate at which something moves or unfolds. The spelling trap is small but real: 'pace' loses its silent final 'e' before the '-ing' ending, so the form is 'pacing' and never 'paceing'.

How the word is built

• pace (step, rate)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)