Rounding

How to spell rounding

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rounding

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rounding mean?

1. nounThe process of replacing a number with a simpler approximate value, usually to the nearest whole number, decimal place, or other convenient figure.
2. verbPresent participle of 'round': moving around or curving past something such as a corner or bend.

Rounding in a sentence

• noun

  The small discrepancy in the total came from rounding each figure to the nearest penny.

• verb

  The cyclist was rounding the final bend when the chain slipped.

• noun

  The spreadsheet applies rounding before it displays the final percentages.

• verb

  The ship felt steady even while rounding the rocky headland.

Where does rounding come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on the adjective and verb 'round', which entered English in the 1200s from Old French 'ront' or 'roont', itself worn down from the Latin 'rotundus', meaning 'circular' or 'wheel-shaped'. That Latin word was formed from 'rota', the ordinary word for a wheel, so at its heart 'round' literally carries the idea of something shaped like a turning wheel. The same 'rota' root survives in modern English words such as 'rotate' and 'rotund'. The suffix '-ing' turns the verb into a noun naming an action or process, and by the time arithmetic and accounting matured, 'rounding' had taken on its familiar technical sense of adjusting a number up or down to a tidier value. Because it is simply 'round' plus a regular '-ing', the spelling is phonetic and holds no hidden trap beyond remembering the single 'd'.

How the word is built

• round (from Latin rotundus: circular, wheel-shaped)
• -ing (verbal noun / present-participle suffix)