Processing

How to spell processing

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce processing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does processing mean?

1. nounThe act of handling, treating, or dealing with data or materials through a series of steps.
2. verbPresent participle of process: performing a series of operations on something.

Processing in a sentence

• noun

  The bank warned that processing of the payment could take three working days.

• verb

  The server is still processing your application and will email a result shortly.

• noun

  The factory installed new machines to speed up food processing.

• verb

  She spent the afternoon processing the backlog of refund requests.

Where does processing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on 'process', which English took in the 1300s from the Old French 'proces', itself from the Latin 'processus', meaning 'a going forward' or 'an advance'. That Latin noun came from the verb 'procedere', formed from 'pro' meaning 'forward' and 'cedere' meaning 'to go' or 'to yield', so the literal sense was simply movement onward. Over time the idea of moving forward step by step gave rise to the modern meaning of a continuous series of actions performed to reach a result. The '-ing' ending is the native English suffix used to turn a verb into a noun of action or a present participle, and it attaches cleanly here because 'process' ends in a single 's' that is not doubled. The same 'cedere' root sits inside everyday relatives such as 'proceed', 'recede', and 'succeed', which is a useful reminder that the middle is spelled with the same '-cess-' you see in 'success'.

How the word is built

• pro- (forward)
• cess (from Latin cedere: to go)
• -ing (forming a noun or present participle)