Reminding

How to spell reminding

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce reminding

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reminding mean?

1. verbCausing someone to remember something or to take notice of it again.

Reminding in a sentence

• She kept reminding him about the dentist appointment.

• The calendar alert is reminding me to pay the rent today.

Where does reminding come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The verb 'remind' was built inside English itself during the early 1600s by joining the prefix 're-', meaning 'again', to the verb 'mind', meaning 'to take notice of' or 'to call to mind'. The 'mind' part traces back to the Old English noun 'gemynd', meaning 'memory' or 'thought', which belongs to a wide Germanic family of words about thinking and remembering. So at its root 'remind' literally means 'to bring back to mind', to make someone notice or recall something once more. The form 'reminding' is simply the present participle, adding the familiar '-ing' ending; the spelling is regular, with no silent letters, the only real care being to keep the single 'm' and the 'd' before the ending rather than doubling either.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• mind (to bring to mind)
• -ing (present participle suffix)