Qualifying

How to spell qualifying

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce qualifying

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does qualifying mean?

1. adjectiveServing as a preliminary stage or test that determines who or what advances or is eligible.
2. verbThe present participle of qualify: meeting the conditions needed to be eligible or to gain a right.

Qualifying in a sentence

• adjective

  The team won their qualifying match and booked a place in the finals.

• verb

  Qualifying for the home loan meant clearing all of their existing debt first.

• adjective

  She posted a fast enough time in the qualifying session to start near the front.

• verb

  Qualifying as a chartered accountant took her almost five years.

Where does qualifying come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin qualis, meaning 'of what kind' or 'of what sort', combined with facere, 'to make'. Medieval Latin fused these into qualificare, literally 'to make of a certain kind', and from there it passed through Old French into English in the sixteenth century as 'qualify'. The earliest English sense was 'to describe the quality of' or 'to modify', and only later did it broaden to mean meeting a required standard or becoming eligible. The form 'qualifying' is simply the present participle, used both as a verb and as an adjective for a preliminary stage that decides who advances. The same qualis root quietly powers 'quality' and 'qualification', and the slightly awkward 'qua' opening, plus the buried -fy turning to -fy-ing, are the spots writers most often fumble.

How the word is built

• quali- (from Latin qualis: of what kind)
• -fy (to make)
• -ing (present participle/adjective suffix)