Spacing

How to spell spacing

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce spacing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does spacing mean?

1. nounThe arrangement of, or the distance left between, things such as letters, lines, or objects.

Spacing in a sentence

• The report looked cramped because the line spacing was too tight.

• Even spacing between the fence posts made the whole row look neat.

Where does spacing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on 'space', which English took from the Old French espace in the 1300s, itself from the Latin spatium meaning 'an interval, a room, a stretch of ground or time'. The Latin term covered both physical distance and the gap between events, and that double sense of room and interval still runs through the modern word. The suffix '-ing' was added in English to turn the verb 'to space' into a noun describing the act or the result of arranging gaps. 'Spacing' in the sense of the controlled distance between letters, lines, or objects became common with the rise of printing and later typewriting, where the deliberate width of a gap mattered greatly. Because the root is spatium with a soft Latin 't', the spelling keeps the single 'c' that sounds like an 's', and the silent 'e' of 'space' is dropped before the '-ing'.

How the word is built

• space (from Latin spatium: an interval, room, distance)
• -ing (forming a noun of action or result)