Specialising

How to spell specialising

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce specialising

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does specialising mean?

1. verbConcentrating on and becoming expert in one particular area, subject, or activity.

Specialising in a sentence

• The clinic is specialising in sports injuries this year.

• After years in general practice she is now specialising in tax law.

Where does specialising come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the British present-participle form of the verb 'specialise', which traces back to the Latin adjective specialis, meaning 'belonging to a particular kind or species'. That adjective grew from species, a noun that originally meant 'appearance, look, or kind', the same root that gives us 'species' and 'special'. English took 'special' from Old French in the medieval period, and by the 1600s the verb 'specialise' had formed to mean narrowing one's focus to a particular field. The verb suffix arrived through the French '-iser' and ultimately the Greek '-izein', and it is this layer that explains the spelling trap: British convention keeps the '-ise' ending while American and Canadian writing prefers '-izing'. Adding '-ing' simply turns the verb into its ongoing form, so the whole word reads as 'making something special, or particular' in progress.

How the word is built

• special- (from Latin specialis: of a particular kind)
• -ise (verb-forming suffix)
• -ing (present participle)

British and American spelling

Specialising is the British spelling. American English spells it specializing.