Starring

How to spell starring

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce starring

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does starring mean?

1. verbPresenting a named performer in a leading or principal role.
2. verbPlaying the leading part in a film, play, or show.

Starring in a sentence

• The new thriller starring two well-known actors opens next week.

• She is starring in the latest stage adaptation downtown.

• The poster listed the film as starring a famous comedian.

• He spent the summer starring in a popular television series.

Where does starring come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the present participle of the verb 'to star', which grew out of the noun 'star'. The noun descends from Old English 'steorra', a native Germanic word for the bright points of light in the night sky, related to Dutch 'ster' and German 'Stern' and ultimately to the same ancient root that gave Latin 'stella' and Greek 'aster'. By the early 1800s 'star' had taken on the figurative sense of a brilliant or leading performer, someone who shone above the rest of a company, and the verb 'to star' followed, meaning to present such a performer in a leading role. The spelling trap is purely mechanical: because 'star' ends in a single stressed vowel plus a single consonant, that final r doubles before -ing, giving 'starring' rather than the wrongly single 'staring', which is an entirely different word about gazing. Keeping the two r's distinguishes the screen credit from a long, fixed look.

How the word is built

• star (heavenly body, hence a celebrated performer)
• doubled r
• -ing (present participle suffix)