Permitting

How to spell permitting

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce permitting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does permitting mean?

1. verbGiving permission for something, or making something possible (present participle of permit).

Permitting in a sentence

• Weather permitting, the outdoor ceremony will go ahead as planned.

• The council is now permitting small businesses to trade in the square.

Where does permitting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'permit', which English took from the Latin permittere, meaning to 'let through' or 'give up'. That verb was built from the prefix per-, meaning 'through', and mittere, meaning 'to send' or 'to let go', so the literal idea was to send something through or to allow it to pass. English borrowed it in the fifteenth century, first in the sense of giving up or handing over, and quickly settled on the modern meaning of allowing something to happen. The same mittere root powers a large family of English words, including 'mission', 'transmit', 'submit' and 'admit', all carrying that core idea of sending. The spelling trap lies in the doubled t: because the stress falls on the second syllable of 'permit', the final t is doubled before -ing, giving 'permitting' rather than 'permiting'.

How the word is built

• per- (through)
• mit (from Latin mittere, to send or let go)
• -ing (present participle; note the doubled t when the suffix is added)