Teaming

How to spell teaming

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce teaming

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does teaming mean?

1. verbJoining with one or more others to work together as a team.

Teaming in a sentence

• The two software firms are teaming up to build a payment platform.

• Engineers from both factories are teaming together to fix the production fault.

Where does teaming come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the present participle of the verb 'team', which traces back to the Old English noun 'team', meaning a brood, a set of offspring, or a line of animals harnessed together. The original sense centred on things that follow or pull in succession, which is why a 'team' first described a group of draught animals yoked to a plough or cart. Over the centuries the idea of creatures pulling together broadened into the modern notion of people cooperating toward a shared goal, and by the twentieth century 'to team up' was a settled phrase for joining forces. The spelling keeps the 'ea' vowel inherited from Old English, which is the very feature that makes it collide with 'teeming' (full to overflowing), a quite separate word built on a different root. Remembering that 'teaming' shares its 'ea' with 'team' itself is the cleanest way to keep the two apart.

How the word is built

• team (a group working together)
• -ing (present participle/gerund suffix)