Rearing

How to spell rearing

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rearing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rearing mean?

1. verbBringing up and caring for a child or young animal until it is grown.
2. verbOf an animal, especially a horse, rising up on its hind legs.

Rearing in a sentence

• The rearing of three children left her with little free time.

• The startled horse was rearing wildly at the sudden noise.

• Successful rearing of livestock requires careful attention to feed and shelter.

• The stallion kept rearing whenever the trainer approached the gate.

Where does rearing come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is the present participle of the verb 'rear', which descends from the Old English raeran, meaning 'to raise, lift up, or build'. That Old English verb was the causative partner of risan, 'to rise', so where things rise on their own, you 'rear' them up by your own effort, a relationship still felt in the modern pair 'rise' and 'raise'. From the early sense of lifting or setting upright, the meaning broadened in two directions: bringing children or animals up to maturity (raising them), and the literal physical action of an animal lifting its forelegs and standing upright. The Germanic roots here connect it to a wide family of words across the older northern languages built on the idea of rising. Because the word simply adds the regular '-ing' ending to a short, familiar verb, its spelling holds few surprises beyond keeping the single 'r' in the middle.

How the word is built

• rear (to raise, lift up)
• -ing (present participle/gerund)