Referencing

How to spell referencing

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce referencing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does referencing mean?

1. verbCiting or pointing to a source, document, or piece of information as support or for identification.

Referencing in a sentence

• The report keeps referencing outdated figures from last year.

• Properly referencing your sources protects you from accusations of plagiarism.

Where does referencing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb referre, which literally meant 'to carry back' or 'to bring back', formed from the prefix re- 'back' and ferre 'to carry'. By the time it reached medieval and Renaissance usage, the sense had shifted from physically carrying something back to mentally bringing a matter back for consideration, hence 'to refer' a question to someone. The noun 'reference', built with the suffix that became -ence, entered English in the late 1500s to mean an act of referring or a relation between things, and later the citing of a source. The verb 'to reference', meaning to cite or point to a source, grew out of that noun, and 'referencing' is simply its present participle and gerund form. The same ferre root carries through a whole family of relatives such as 'transfer', 'prefer', and 'infer', and the spelling trap lies in the unstressed middle: the -ence ending sounds like a vague schwa, tempting writers toward -ance.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• fer (carry, from Latin ferre)
• -ence (noun-forming suffix)
• -ing (verbal/gerund suffix)