Smiling

How to spell smiling

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce smiling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does smiling mean?

1. verbForming a pleased or friendly expression by curving the mouth upward, often showing the teeth.

Smiling in a sentence

• She kept smiling throughout the whole graduation ceremony.

• The receptionist was smiling as she handed over the keys.

Where does smiling come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word is the present participle of the verb 'smile', which appeared in Middle English as 'smilen' around the 1300s. Its roots are Germanic and Scandinavian: it is closely related to the Old Norse 'smila' and to dialectal Swedish 'smila', both meaning to smile or smirk. Scholars connect these forms to a wider family that also gave Latin 'mirari' (to wonder at) and the English word 'marvel', all reaching back to a root suggesting amused wonder. When you add the '-ing' ending to 'smile', the silent final 'e' is dropped before the suffix, which is exactly the spelling habit that produces 'smiling' rather than the mistaken 'smileing'. That dropped 'e' is the single trap worth remembering here.

How the word is built

• smile (from Middle English smilen: to smile)
• -ing (verb participle/adjective suffix)