Ruining

How to spell ruining

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce ruining

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ruining mean?

1. verbCausing the destruction, spoiling, or severe damage of something.

Ruining in a sentence

• The constant noise was ruining her concentration during the meeting.

• He worried that the lawsuit was slowly ruining the family business.

Where does ruining come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is the present participle of the verb 'ruin', which English took from the Old French 'ruine' in the late 1300s, itself drawn from the Latin 'ruina', meaning 'a falling down' or 'a collapse'. That noun grew from the verb 'ruere', which literally meant 'to fall', 'to rush', or 'to tumble down', so the earliest sense was vividly physical: a building or wall coming crashing down. Over time the meaning broadened from literal collapse to figurative wreckage, covering the spoiling of plans, reputations, finances, and happiness. When the verb takes the '-ing' ending, the spelling simply adds the suffix to the base 'ruin' without doubling the final 'n', because the stress does not fall on that last syllable; this is exactly where careless writers sometimes slip and write 'ruinning'. The same Latin 'ruere' also lies behind 'rush' in spirit and gives the word its sense of sudden, sweeping loss.

How the word is built

• ruin (from Latin ruina: a falling down, collapse)
• -ing (present participle suffix)