Posing

How to spell posing

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce posing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does posing mean?

1. verbHolding the body in a particular position, especially for a photograph, painting, or display.
2. verbPresenting or creating something such as a question, threat, or difficulty.
3. verbPretending to be someone or something else in order to deceive.

Posing in a sentence

• The model is posing for the magazine cover under bright studio lights.

• The heavy rainfall is posing a serious risk to the low-lying farms.

• The fraudster was caught posing as a building inspector to gain entry.

• The children kept posing in front of the statue while their father took photos.

• The new regulations are posing real difficulties for small employers.

• He was arrested for posing as a charity collector outside the supermarket.

Where does posing come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the present participle of the verb 'pose', which English took from the Old French verb 'poser', meaning 'to place, put, or set down'. That French word descended from the Late Latin 'pausare', 'to halt or rest', a sense that survives in our word 'pause'. Along the way the meaning became tangled with the unrelated Latin 'ponere', 'to put or place', which is why 'pose' carries the idea of setting something in position. English adopted 'pose' in the 1500s, first in the sense of placing or laying down a proposition, and later in the familiar sense of arranging the body for a picture. The single 's' in the spelling reflects that French 'poser' root, and because the final 'e' is dropped before '-ing', writers simply add the suffix to give 'posing'.

How the word is built

• pose (from Latin pausare/ponere: to place, to set)
• -ing (present participle suffix)