Unsettling

How to spell unsettling

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce unsettling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unsettling mean?

1. adjectiveCausing anxiety, unease, or a loss of one's sense of calm or security.
2. verbPresent participle of unsettle: disturbing the stability or composure of someone or something.

Unsettling in a sentence

• adjective

  The audit revealed an unsettling pattern of missing receipts.

• verb

  The constant rumours of layoffs were unsettling the entire team.

• adjective

  There was something deeply unsettling about the empty office at midnight.

• verb

  Sudden changes to the schedule kept unsettling her careful routine.

Where does unsettling come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on the native English verb 'settle', which descends from the Old English setlan, meaning 'to seat, place, or bring to rest', itself related to setl, a seat or place to sit. By the 1500s 'settle' had developed the sense of becoming calm, fixed, or stable, as when a liquid settles or a person settles down. Adding the negating prefix 'un-' produced the verb 'unsettle' in the early 1600s, meaning to disturb something that had been steady or secure. The present participle 'unsettling' then came to work as an adjective describing anything that disturbs one's composure or sense of stability. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the doubled 't' carries over from 'settle', and the silent-feeling '-le' collapses against the '-ing' ending, so writers often drop a letter.

How the word is built

• un- (not, reversing)
• settle (from Old English setlan: to place, come to rest)
• -ing (forming an adjective/participle)