Persuading

How to spell persuading

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce persuading

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does persuading mean?

1. verbCausing someone to believe or do something through reasoning or appeal.

Persuading in a sentence

• After persuading the board, she secured the funding for the project.

• Persuading him to take the earlier flight took most of the afternoon.

Where does persuading come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb persuadere, which combined the intensive prefix per-, meaning 'thoroughly', with suadere, meaning 'to urge' or 'to advise'. The literal sense was therefore 'to advise thoroughly' or 'to bring someone fully round to a view'. The same suadere root underlies 'suasion' and 'dissuade', and it is distantly connected to the Latin word for 'sweet', suavis, since gentle, agreeable urging was felt to be sweet to the listener. English took the verb 'persuade' from Latin (partly through French influence) in the early 1500s, and the participle 'persuading' follows the regular English pattern of dropping the silent final 'e' before adding '-ing'. That dropped 'e' is the spelling trap: writers must remember 'persuade' loses its 'e', and that the middle is spelled 'suad', not 'swade'.

How the word is built

• per- (thoroughly)
• suad (from Latin suadere: to urge, advise)
• -ing (present participle suffix)