Uploading

How to spell uploading

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce uploading

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does uploading mean?

1. verbTransferring data or files from a local device to a remote computer, server, or network.

Uploading in a sentence

• The slow connection made uploading the video take an hour.

• She spent the morning uploading the new product photos to the website.

Where does uploading come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the present participle of the verb 'upload', itself a modern compound formed in the computing era from the everyday English elements 'up' and 'load'. Both parts are deeply native: 'up' descends from the Old English 'upp', meaning in or toward a higher position, while 'load' comes from the Old English 'lad', which originally meant a way, a course, or the act of carrying, and which is a close cousin of 'lead' in the sense of guiding. By the medieval period 'load' had settled into its familiar meaning of a burden placed onto something. The verb 'upload' was coined in the 1970s by analogy with 'download', describing the act of sending data up from a local device to a remote computer or network, and 'uploading' simply adds the standard '-ing' ending. The spelling stays straightforward because no consonant is doubled: the 'd' of 'load' is preceded by a vowel team, so it remains single before '-ing'.

How the word is built

• up- (upward)
• load (to put a burden on, here a file)
• -ing (present participle/gerund)