Sloping

How to spell sloping

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sloping

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sloping mean?

1. adjectiveInclining or slanting steadily from a higher to a lower level.

Sloping in a sentence

• The cottage sat on a gently sloping hillside above the village.

• Water drained quickly off the sloping roof during the storm.

Where does sloping come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from 'slope', a noun and verb describing a surface that rises or falls at an angle. The likely source is the Old English word 'aslope', meaning 'in a slanting direction', which seems to trace back to a Germanic root tied to slipping or sliding away. The standalone form 'slope' surfaced in English around the sixteenth century, first as a verb meaning 'to move at an angle' and soon as a noun for an inclined surface. Adding the participle ending -ing gave 'sloping', describing anything that tilts steadily from one level to another. The spelling trap lives in that single 'p': because the root ends in a silent 'e' dropped before -ing, the consonant is never doubled, so 'sloping' (gentle incline) must not be confused with 'slopping' (spilling liquid).

How the word is built

• slope (incline, slant)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)