Steering

How to spell steering

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce steering

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does steering mean?

1. nounThe mechanism or system by which the direction of a vehicle is controlled.
2. verbPresent participle of steer: guiding or directing the course of something.

Steering in a sentence

• noun

  The steering felt loose as she drove along the motorway.

• verb

  Steering a small boat through the harbour takes plenty of practice.

• noun

  Power steering makes parking a heavy van much easier.

• verb

  She was good at steering the meeting back to the main agenda.

Where does steering come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English verb stieran, sometimes written steoran, meaning to guide or to direct, especially the course of a ship. It belongs to a broad Germanic family, with close cousins such as Dutch sturen and German steuern, all rooted in an ancestral sense of holding something steady on its course. The original idea was strongly nautical: a steersman literally controlled the stern, the rear of the vessel where the rudder hung, and the words steer and stern grew from the same source. As land vehicles developed, the verb naturally widened to cover guiding cars and machinery, and the -ing form became a noun for the controls themselves, as in power steering. The double e in the modern spelling preserves the long vowel of the old root, which is a reliable memory anchor against the temptation to write an ie.

How the word is built

• steer (from Old English stieran: to guide, direct)
• -ing (noun/verb suffix)