Strengthening

How to spell strengthening

13 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce strengthening

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does strengthening mean?

1. verbThe act or process of making something stronger, firmer, or more effective.
2. adjectiveHaving the effect of making something stronger or more resilient.

Strengthening in a sentence

• verb

  The strengthening of the old bridge took most of the summer.

• adjective

  The trainer assigned a set of strengthening exercises for his knees.

• verb

  Daily strengthening of the core muscles improved her posture.

• adjective

  The clinic offers strengthening programmes for patients recovering from surgery.

Where does strengthening come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows out of the Old English noun strengþu, meaning 'power' or 'firmness', which itself came from strang, the ancestor of the modern adjective 'strong'. In Old and Middle English the silent-looking cluster 'gth' reflects a genuine older pronunciation in which more of those consonants were sounded, which is exactly why the spelling keeps the awkward 'ngth' that many writers now stumble over. The verb 'strengthen' was formed later, during the Middle English period, by adding the suffix -en, a productive ending that turns nouns and adjectives into verbs meaning 'to make' something (compare 'harden', 'lengthen' and 'soften'). Adding -ing then produces 'strengthening', the present participle and gerund. The whole family is solidly Germanic, with close cousins in Dutch and German, and the persistent spelling trap is simply remembering that the noun 'strength' sits whole inside it before the -ening is attached.

How the word is built

• strength (power, force, from Old English strengþu)
• -en (verb-forming suffix: to make or become)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)