Spinning

How to spell spinning

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce spinning

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does spinning mean?

1. verbTurning rapidly around a central point or axis.
2. nounThe activity of twisting fibres into thread, or an indoor cycling exercise class.

Spinning in a sentence

• verb

  The washing machine drum was spinning at high speed.

• noun

  She joined an early morning spinning class at the local gym.

• verb

  The car wheels kept spinning on the icy road.

• noun

  The museum demonstrated traditional wool spinning on an old wheel.

Where does spinning come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English verb spinnan, meaning to draw out fibres and twist them into thread, a sense that points straight back to the ancient craft of making yarn by hand. It belongs to a wider Germanic family, with close cousins in Dutch spinnen and German spinnen, and the same root gives us the noun spider, literally the creature that spins. Over the centuries the meaning broadened from the textile sense to any rapid turning motion, so a wheel, a coin, or a dancer could all be said to be doing it. The form spinning simply adds the -ing ending, and because the root ends in a single short vowel plus n, the n is doubled before the suffix, which is the main spelling point to remember. The modern fitness sense, an energetic indoor cycling class on a stationary bike, is a twentieth century extension of the same idea of fast continuous rotation.

How the word is built

• spin (root, from Old English spinnan: to draw out and twist fibre)
• -n- (consonant doubled after a short stressed vowel)
• -ing (present participle / verbal noun suffix)