Reporting

How to spell reporting

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce reporting

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reporting mean?

1. verbGiving an account of something or making it known to someone in authority.
2. nounThe activity of gathering and presenting information, especially as journalism or formal records.

Reporting in a sentence

• verb

  The staff were reporting the fault to the maintenance team all afternoon.

• noun

  The newspaper won an award for its investigative reporting on the scandal.

• verb

  She was reporting directly to the regional manager during the trial period.

• noun

  Accurate financial reporting is a legal requirement for every listed company.

Where does reporting come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb reportare, which meant literally 'to carry back', built from the prefix re- 'back' and portare 'to carry'. The idea was that someone would carry information back from one place to another, and from this came the sense of bringing back an account of what had happened. English took the noun and verb 'report' from Old French reporter in the 1300s, and the modern sense of giving a formal or journalistic account grew out of that older notion of carrying news back to an audience. The -ing form turns the verb into both a present participle and a verbal noun, so it can name the whole activity, as in news reporting or financial reporting. The same portare root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'transport' (carry across), 'export' (carry out), and 'porter' (one who carries), which is a useful reminder that the middle of the word is spelled with the carrying root 'port'.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• port (from Latin portare: to carry)
• -ing (verbal noun / participle suffix)