Tackling

How to spell tackling

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce tackling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tackling mean?

1. verbConfronting and making a determined effort to deal with a problem or task.
2. verbIn sport, the act of seizing or stopping an opponent to win the ball or halt their progress.

Tackling in a sentence

• The council is finally tackling the housing shortage.

• His last-minute tackling stopped the striker from scoring.

• Tackling debt early can save you a great deal of money.

• The coach praised the team's hard tackling throughout the match.

Where does tackling come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

This is the -ing form of the verb 'tackle', which came into English in the 1300s from the Middle Low German and Dutch word 'takel', meaning the rigging, ropes, and equipment used to work a ship's sails. The earliest English sense was thoroughly nautical, referring to the gear and apparatus aboard a vessel, and that meaning survives today in 'fishing tackle', the kit an angler uses. From the idea of equipment and harnessing, the verb developed the sense of laying hold of something and getting to grips with it, and by the 1800s it had broadened to mean confronting a problem or, in sport, seizing and bringing down an opponent. The spelling keeps the doubled 'ck' and the soft '-le' ending of 'tackle', and the only trap is remembering to drop the final 'e' before adding '-ing', so it is 'tackling' rather than 'tackleing'.

How the word is built

• tackle (to grapple with or fasten)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)