Reviewing

How to spell reviewing

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce reviewing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reviewing mean?

1. verbLooking over or examining something again, often to assess, correct, or report on it.

Reviewing in a sentence

• The committee is reviewing the budget before the next meeting.

• She spent the evening reviewing her notes ahead of the exam.

Where does reviewing come from?

Language of origin: French

This word descends from the Old French reveue, a noun meaning 'a viewing again' or 'an inspection', which came from the verb revoir, 'to see again'. That French verb was built from re-, meaning 'again', plus the Latin videre, 'to see', the same root that gives us 'video', 'vision' and 'evident'. English took up 'review' in the 1500s, at first in the military sense of a formal inspection of troops, and it soon broadened to mean examining or surveying anything closely. The participle 'reviewing' simply adds the -ing ending, but the spelling trap lives in the middle: the cluster i-e-w preserves the old French 'vue' (a view) rather than spelling it the way it sounds. Remembering that 'view' sits whole inside the word keeps the e before the w from going astray.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• view (to look/see, from Latin videre)
• -ing (present participle suffix)