Swimming

How to spell swimming

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce swimming

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does swimming mean?

1. nounThe activity or sport of moving through water using the limbs; also the present participle of the verb 'to swim'.
2. adjectiveFeeling dizzy or giddy, as if the surroundings are spinning.

Swimming in a sentence

• noun

  Swimming is excellent exercise for the whole body.

• adjective

  After the long flight her head was swimming with exhaustion.

• noun

  The hotel has a heated swimming pool on the roof.

• adjective

  The heat left him swimming and unsteady on his feet.

Where does swimming come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English verb 'swimman', meaning to move through water by the action of the limbs, a verb shared across the old Germanic languages with relatives such as Old Norse 'svimma' and German 'schwimmen'. The base sense was always about propelling the body through a liquid, though even early on it could stretch to the idea of floating or drifting. The present participle and gerund form simply adds '-ing' to the verb, and because 'swim' ends in a single vowel followed by a single consonant with stress on that syllable, the consonant doubles: swim becomes swimming. That doubling rule, the same one behind 'running' and 'beginning', is the chief spelling trap here, since writers sometimes drop a letter and produce the incorrect 'swiming'. The figurative use, as in a head swimming with confusion, appeared later but flows naturally from the original sense of moving giddily as if through water.

How the word is built

• swim (Old English swimman, to move through water)
• -ming (doubled consonant
• -ing, present participle/gerund)