Striking

How to spell striking

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce striking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does striking mean?

1. adjectiveAttracting attention by being very noticeable, impressive, or unusual.
2. verbPresent participle of strike: hitting something, or refusing to work as a protest.

Striking in a sentence

• adjective

  The new logo had a striking red and black design.

• verb

  The rail workers have been striking over pay for three weeks.

• adjective

  There was a striking difference between the two quarterly reports.

• verb

  He kept striking the keys long after the song had ended.

Where does striking come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows out of the verb strike, which comes from the Old English strican, meaning 'to stroke, to rub, or to move lightly over a surface'. That gentle early sense is surprisingly far from a modern punch; over the medieval period the meaning hardened from a stroking motion into a forceful blow. The same Germanic root also gave English the words stroke and streak, all sharing the idea of a line drawn quickly across something. By the time the -ing form developed into an adjective in the 1600s, 'striking' had come to describe something that hits the eye or mind forcefully, hence 'impressive' or 'arresting'. The spelling drops the silent e of strike before -ing and keeps a single k, which is the usual rule and rarely trips adults, though the urge to double letters is the only real trap here.

How the word is built

• strik- (from strike, Old English strican: to stroke, move, rub)
• -ing (forming a participle or adjective)