Trembling

How to spell trembling

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce trembling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does trembling mean?

1. verbShaking involuntarily, usually from cold, fear, weakness, or strong emotion.
2. nounAn act or state of shaking; a continuous quiver.

Trembling in a sentence

• verb

  Her hands were trembling as she signed the mortgage papers.

• noun

  A slight trembling in her voice gave away how anxious she felt.

• verb

  The dog stood trembling on the vet's table during the examination.

• noun

  The doctor noticed a faint trembling in the patient's left hand.

Where does trembling come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb tremere, which meant 'to shake' or 'to quake', the same root that gives us 'tremor' and 'tremulous'. From tremere came the frequentative form tremulare, meaning 'to shake repeatedly', which passed into Old French as trembler around the twelfth century. English borrowed the verb 'tremble' in the 1300s, and the present participle 'trembling' followed naturally by adding -ing. The single silent 'b' that distinguishes 'tremble' from a word like 'tremor' is the spelling trap here: it survives from the French and Latin shapes even though it is not pronounced distinctly. Knowing the family resemblance to 'tremor' and 'tremulous' is a useful reminder that the core is trem-, with the -ble carrying that telltale 'b'.

How the word is built

• tremble (from Latin tremulare: to shake)
• -ing (present participle/verbal noun suffix)