Suing

How to spell suing

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce suing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does suing mean?

1. verbBringing a legal claim against a person or organisation in a court of law.
2. verbEarnestly appealing or petitioning for something, as in seeking peace or favour.

Suing in a sentence

• The tenants are suing their landlord over the unsafe wiring.

• The defeated army was soon suing for peace.

• She is suing the company for unpaid wages.

• The rebels began suing for a truce after heavy losses.

Where does suing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of the verb 'sue', which English took from Anglo-Norman and Old French 'suer' or 'sivre', meaning 'to follow' or 'to pursue'. Those forms descend from the Latin verb 'sequi', literally 'to follow', the same root that gives us 'sequence', 'sequel', and 'pursue'. When the word entered English in the 1200s it carried the broad idea of following after something: chasing a person, petitioning a superior, or pressing a claim. Over time the legal meaning of pursuing a claim through a court hardened into the dominant modern sense, while the gentler 'petition' meaning survives in the phrase 'suing for peace'. The spelling trap is purely about the ending: 'sue' loses its silent e before -ing, giving 'suing' and not 'sueing'.

How the word is built

• sue (from Latin sequi: to follow, pursue)
• -ing (present participle suffix; the final e of sue is dropped)