Warring

How to spell warring

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce warring

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does warring mean?

1. adjectiveEngaged in armed conflict or bitter, ongoing dispute with one another.

Warring in a sentence

• The treaty finally brought the two warring nations to the negotiating table.

• The company collapsed under the strain of its warring factions on the board.

Where does warring come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word traces back to the noun and verb 'war', which entered English from the Late Old English 'werre', borrowed in turn from Old North French 'werre' (the standard Old French form being 'guerre', still seen in modern French). That word ultimately came from a Germanic root meaning 'confusion', 'discord', or 'strife', the same source that gave German 'wirren', 'to confuse'. Interestingly, the Romans had no single matching noun and the Latin 'bellum' did not survive into the Romance languages for everyday use, so the Germanic word filled the gap across much of Europe. The participle 'warring' simply attaches the '-ing' ending to 'war', and because the vowel is short and stressed, the final 'r' doubles before the suffix, which is the small spelling trap most writers pause over.

How the word is built

• war (armed conflict)
• -r- (doubled consonant)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)