Projecting

How to spell projecting

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce projecting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does projecting mean?

1. verbPresent participle of project: forecasting, displaying an image, or attributing one's own feelings to others.
2. adjectiveSticking out or extending beyond a surface.

Projecting in a sentence

• verb

  The finance team is projecting a modest rise in revenue next quarter.

• adjective

  A projecting ledge above the door kept the rain off the step.

• verb

  She is projecting the slides onto the meeting room wall.

• adjective

  The projecting beam forced everyone to duck as they walked through.

Where does projecting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb proicere, meaning literally 'to throw forward', built from the prefix pro- ('forward') and jacere ('to throw'). The past participle stem projectus gave medieval Latin projectum, a thing thrown out or planned ahead, and English took the verb 'project' from it in the 1400s and 1500s. The literal idea of throwing something outward survives in several modern senses: a structure that juts out projects into space, a beam of light is thrown onto a screen, a forecast is thrown ahead into the future, and in psychology unwanted feelings are thrown onto someone else. The 'ject' spelling, shared with words such as 'reject', 'inject' and 'eject', always traces back to that single root meaning 'throw', which is a handy way to remember the silent logic behind the letters.

How the word is built

• pro- (forward)
• ject (from Latin jacere, to throw)
• -ing (present participle/adjective suffix)