Quitting

How to spell quitting

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce quitting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does quitting mean?

1. verbPresent participle of quit: leaving a job, place, or activity, or giving up a habit.

Quitting in a sentence

• She has been seriously considering quitting her job for months.

• Quitting smoking improved his fitness within weeks.

Where does quitting come from?

Language of origin: French

The base verb 'quit' came into English in the 1200s from the Old French verb 'quiter', meaning to release, set free, or discharge from a debt or obligation. That French word grew out of the Latin adjective 'quietus', which literally meant 'at rest', 'calm', or 'free', and is the same root that gives us 'quiet' and 'acquit'. Early English uses of 'quit' carried the sense of releasing someone from a duty or clearing a debt, and only later did it broaden to mean leaving a place or stopping an activity altogether. The present participle 'quitting' follows the standard English rule that a single final consonant after a short stressed vowel is doubled before '-ing', which is exactly the spelling trap: the silent doubling of the 't' is easy to drop. Knowing that 'quit' ends in a single 't' yet still doubles it (like 'sit' to 'sitting') is the key to remembering the double letter.

How the word is built

• quit (to leave or stop)
• -t- (doubled consonant after a short stressed vowel)
• -ing (present participle suffix)