Unloading

How to spell unloading

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce unloading

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unloading mean?

1. verbRemoving cargo, contents, or a burden from a vehicle, container, or carrier.

Unloading in a sentence

• The crew spent the morning unloading the delivery truck.

• He strained his back while unloading heavy boxes from the van.

Where does unloading come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from the native English verb 'load', which descends from the Old English noun 'lad', meaning a course, a journey, or the act of carrying. Over time 'lad' gave rise to the sense of the goods being carried, and by the late 1400s 'load' had become a verb meaning to put a burden onto something. The prefix 'un-', also an old Germanic element, here signals reversal or removal, so 'unload' literally means to take the burden back off. The continuous form 'unloading' simply adds the participle ending '-ing'. Because every part of the word is plain and English in origin, the spelling is regular, with no silent letters or borrowed quirks to trip up the writer.

How the word is built

• un- (reverse or remove)
• load (root: a burden carried)
• -ing (present participle suffix)