Spreading

How to spell spreading

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce spreading

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does spreading mean?

1. verbCausing something to extend, distribute, or move outward over a wider area.

Spreading in a sentence

• The fire was spreading quickly through the dry grass.

• Spreading butter evenly across warm toast takes only a moment.

Where does spreading come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the present participle of the verb 'spread', which comes from the Old English sprædan, meaning 'to stretch out' or 'to extend over a surface'. That word belongs to a wide Germanic family, sharing roots with the Dutch spreiden and the German spreiten, all carrying the sense of opening something out flat. The core idea has stayed remarkably steady for over a thousand years: a thing pushed out so it covers more ground, whether that is jam on bread, news through a town, or fire across a field. The spelling keeps the original double trap-free stem 'spread', and the participle is formed simply by adding -ing, with no doubling of the final 'd' because the vowel sound before it is not a single short stressed vowel of the kind that triggers doubling. Because 'spread' itself never changed its written shape into the past or participle in the irregular way many verbs do, 'spreading' is one of the more predictable forms in English.

How the word is built

• spread (Old English sprædan: to stretch out)
• -ing (present participle / gerund)