Vibrating

How to spell vibrating

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce vibrating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does vibrating mean?

1. verbMoving rapidly back and forth with a slight trembling motion.

Vibrating in a sentence

• The phone kept vibrating in his pocket during the meeting.

• A faint vibrating hum came from the old refrigerator.

Where does vibrating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin verb vibrare, which meant 'to shake', 'to brandish', or 'to set in tremulous motion', the same notion you get when waving a spear or twanging a string. Latin built the base verb into the English word 'vibrate', which appeared in the early 1600s with the sense of moving rapidly to and fro. The form 'vibrating' is simply that verb carrying the present participle ending -ing, used both as a continuous verb form and as an adjective describing something in oscillation. The same Latin root also gives us 'vibrant', a word that originally meant 'quivering' before it broadened into 'lively' and 'full of energy'. Because the spelling keeps the single Latin 'b' and a single 'r', the only mild trap is resisting the urge to double either consonant.

How the word is built

• vibr- (from Latin vibrare: to shake, move rapidly)
• -ate (verb)
• -ing (present participle suffix)