Tending

How to spell tending

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce tending

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tending mean?

1. verbLooking after, caring for, or attending to someone or something.
2. verbShowing a general inclination or movement in a particular direction.

Tending in a sentence

• She spent the afternoon tending the vegetable garden.

• House prices have been tending upward all year.

• The nurse was tending a row of patients on the ward.

• The discussion was tending toward a compromise.

Where does tending come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The base verb tend traces back to the Latin tendere, which literally meant 'to stretch' or 'to reach out'. Two slightly different streams of meaning flowed into English. One came directly from that idea of stretching toward something, giving us 'to tend' in the sense of leaning or inclining in a particular direction. The other arrived as a shortened form of 'attend', from the Latin attendere meaning 'to stretch one's mind toward', which is why we speak of tending a fire or tending the sick. Both senses entered English from Old French during the medieval period, and the simple spelling tend plus the regular -ing ending makes 'tending' a straightforward present participle today.

How the word is built

• tend (from Latin tendere: to stretch, reach toward)
• -ing (present participle)