Timing

How to spell timing

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce timing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does timing mean?

1. nounThe choice, judgement, or coordination of when something happens for the best effect.

Timing in a sentence

• The comedian's perfect timing made the whole room laugh.

• Good timing on the property sale earned them a strong profit.

Where does timing come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows directly from the native English noun 'time', which descends from Old English 'tīma', meaning a limited stretch or a fitting moment, related to the Old Norse 'tími' with the same sense. The deeper root is the Proto-Germanic 'tīmōn', thought to mean a division or stretch of duration, and it is distantly connected to the idea of 'tide', another word that once meant a portion of time. By adding the verbal noun ending '-ing', English produced 'timing' to name the act of measuring, choosing, or coordinating moments, a usage that became common from around the seventeenth century. The sense sharpened in the worlds of music, sport, and engineering, where the precise arrangement of when things happen is everything. Because the base word ends in a silent 'e', the spelling trap is simple: that 'e' is dropped before '-ing', giving 'timing' rather than 'timeing'.

How the word is built

• time (from Old English tīma: a period, an occasion)
• -ing (noun suffix forming the act or result)