Thriving

How to spell thriving

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce thriving

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does thriving mean?

1. adjectiveGrowing, developing, or succeeding vigorously and healthily.
2. verbThe present participle of thrive: prospering or growing strongly.

Thriving in a sentence

• adjective

  The city centre now has a thriving market every weekend.

• verb

  The seedlings are thriving in the warmer greenhouse soil.

• adjective

  After two profitable years she runs a thriving catering business.

• verb

  Despite the recession, the repair shop is thriving on word of mouth.

Where does thriving come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Thriving is built on the verb thrive, which English borrowed from Old Norse in the twelfth or thirteenth century. The source was the reflexive verb thrifask, meaning roughly 'to grasp for oneself' and so 'to prosper', formed from thrifa, 'to grasp or seize'. The underlying idea was that someone who reached out and got hold of things would do well, and from that the sense shifted to growing vigorously and flourishing in general. The Norse origin explains the unusual look of the spelling, with the 'th' followed by the long 'i' that survives in thrive, thrived and thriving. The 'v' before the '-ing' is a useful spelling anchor: thrive keeps its full root before the suffix, dropping only the silent final 'e'.

How the word is built

• thrive (Old Norse thrifask: to grasp, prosper)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)