Slipping

How to spell slipping

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce slipping

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does slipping mean?

1. verbSliding accidentally, losing one's footing or grip, or gradually declining.

Slipping in a sentence

• The climbers worried about slipping on the wet rocks.

• Her grades were slipping after months of missed lectures.

Where does slipping come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word slip comes from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch slippen, meaning 'to glide' or 'to slide smoothly', and it is related to a wider family of Germanic words for slick, slimy or slippery surfaces. It entered English in the 1300s, first describing the unintended sliding of a foot or hand, and it later broadened to cover anything that moves quietly or escapes control, such as a deadline slipping or a grip slipping. The present participle slipping doubles the p, following the regular English rule that a short stressed vowel followed by a single consonant doubles that consonant before -ing. That doubling is the only real spelling trap here: writers sometimes leave a single p, which would suggest a long vowel as in 'sliping'. The same slip root survives in everyday relatives like slipper and slippery, all carrying the sense of an easy, uncontrolled glide.

How the word is built

• slip (to slide or lose grip)
• -p- (doubled consonant)
• -ing (present participle)