Preaching

How to spell preaching

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce preaching

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does preaching mean?

1. verbDelivering a religious sermon or teaching from scripture to a congregation.
2. verbGiving someone unwanted moral advice in a tedious or self-righteous way.

Preaching in a sentence

• The vicar spent the morning preaching to a packed church.

• He kept preaching about healthy eating while finishing a second slice of cake.

• The visiting minister was known for preaching with great passion.

• Nobody enjoys preaching at family dinners about how to spend money.

Where does preaching come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb praedicare, which meant 'to proclaim' or 'to make known publicly', formed from prae- meaning 'before' and dicare meaning 'to declare or proclaim'. As Christianity spread, praedicare took on the specific church sense of proclaiming the gospel, and the word passed into Old French as prechier and predichier. English borrowed it before 1200 as 'prechen', which eventually settled into the modern 'preach'. The same Latin root survives in words like 'predicate' and 'dictate', both of which involve declaring or stating something. The spelling trap lies in the 'ea' digraph and the soft 'ch', since the sound gives no hint that an 'a' belongs in the middle.

How the word is built

• preach (from Latin praedicare: to proclaim)
• -ing (verb/gerund suffix)