Reopening

How to spell reopening

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce reopening

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reopening mean?

1. nounThe act or occasion of opening something again after it has been closed.
2. verbThe present participle of reopen: opening something once more.

Reopening in a sentence

• noun

  The reopening of the bridge was delayed by repair work.

• verb

  The firm is reopening its city office after two years of remote work.

• noun

  Shoppers queued before the reopening of the refurbished store.

• verb

  By reopening the case, the detective found the missing evidence.

Where does reopening come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word joins the Latin prefix re-, meaning 'again' or 'back', to the native English word 'open', which comes from the Old English 'openian', 'to make open or accessible'. The verb 'open' itself is closely tied to the word 'up', since something opened was originally lifted or turned up. When the re- prefix attaches, it simply signals doing the action a second time, and the -ing ending turns the verb into either an action noun or a participle. English has freely built such re- compounds since the medieval period, and the productive pattern means 'reopening' reads as a transparent, made-to-order word rather than an old fixed form. The main spelling point worth noting is that no hyphen is needed and the two e letters sit apart: re-o, not ree, so the eye should keep the prefix and the root distinct.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• open (root, to make open)
• -ing (verb/noun suffix)