Paying

How to spell paying

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce paying

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does paying mean?

1. verbGiving money in return for goods, services, or to settle a debt.
2. adjectiveYielding a profit or financial return; worth the cost or effort.

Paying in a sentence

• verb

  She is paying the electricity bill online this evening.

• adjective

  Running the small cafe finally became a paying venture.

• verb

  The company is paying its suppliers a week earlier this month.

• adjective

  Consulting turned out to be the most paying part of his work.

Where does paying come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'pay', which English took from the Old French 'paier' in the 1200s, originally meaning 'to pacify' or 'to satisfy'. The French verb came from the Latin 'pacare', meaning 'to make peace with' or 'to appease', which was itself built on 'pax', the Latin word for 'peace'. The link is that handing over money was thought of as satisfying or appeasing a creditor, so 'settling up' grew out of 'making peace'. That same 'pax' root sits behind English words such as 'pacify' and 'peace'. The spelling keeps the silent final 'y' of 'pay' before '-ing', which is why it is 'paying' rather than 'paiing', a small trap for a word that otherwise looks simple.

How the word is built

• pay (from Latin pacare: to pacify/settle)
• -ing (present participle/gerund suffix)