Ranging

How to spell ranging

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce ranging

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ranging mean?

1. verbVarying or extending between specified limits, or moving freely over an area.

Ranging in a sentence

• The salaries on offer were ranging from modest to generous.

• The survey covered topics ranging from housing to healthcare.

Where does ranging come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the present participle of the verb 'range', which English took from the Old French verb 'rangier', meaning 'to set in a row' or 'to arrange in a line'. That French word grew from 'renc' or 'ranc', a noun meaning 'a row' or 'a line of people', the same source that gave English the word 'rank'. The deeper root is Frankish and Germanic, a word for a ring or circle of standing figures. In English the sense widened from simply lining things up to roaming freely across an area and then to spreading across a span of values, as when prices range from low to high. The spelling trap lives in the join: the final silent 'e' of 'range' is dropped when '-ing' is added, leaving 'ranging' rather than 'rangeing', while the soft 'g' sound is preserved by the following 'i'.

How the word is built

• range (a row, line, extent)
• -ing (present participle suffix); the silent e of 'range' is dropped before -ing