Spring

How to spell spring

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce spring

What does spring mean?

1. nounThe season between winter and summer, when plants begin to grow.
2. nounA coiled piece of metal that returns to its shape after being pressed or stretched.
3. nounA place where water flows naturally from the ground.
4. verbTo move or jump suddenly and quickly.

Spring in a sentence

• noun

  The garden bursts into colour every spring.

• noun

  A broken spring in the mattress kept poking his back.

• noun

  The village draws its drinking water from a mountain spring.

• verb

  The cat would spring onto the windowsill at the first sign of birds.

• noun

  They planned the wedding for late spring when the weather is mild.

• noun

  The mechanic replaced the worn spring in the suspension.

Where does spring come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English verb springan, which meant to leap, jump, or burst forth, and it belongs to a wide family of related Germanic words including the Dutch and German springen, both still meaning to jump. The original sense was all about sudden movement and emergence, which is why a place where water bursts out of the ground came to be called a spring. From that same idea of things bursting into life came the name of the season, originally called the spring of the year, when plants leap up from the soil; the older full phrase was eventually shortened to the single word. The coiled piece of metal earned its name because it springs back into shape when released. The remarkable thing is that one ancient root for sudden upward motion quietly fuels all these everyday meanings, from the season to the mattress.

How the word is built

• spring (from Old English springan: to leap, burst forth)