Watching
verbLooking at someone or something attentively over a period of time.
How to spell watching
8 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce watching
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does watching mean?
- verbLooking at someone or something attentively over a period of time.
Watching in a sentence
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She spent the evening watching the news for storm updates.
-
He kept watching the door, waiting for his colleague to arrive.
Where does watching come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is the present participle of the verb 'watch', which descends from the Old English wæccan, meaning 'to be awake' or 'to keep vigil'. That verb was closely tied to wacian and to the same Germanic root that gives us 'wake', so the earliest sense was less about looking and more about staying alert through the night. Over the medieval period the meaning broadened from 'remaining awake on guard' to 'observing attentively', which is why night sentries were said to 'keep watch'. The spelling kept its tch cluster, a typical English way of writing the 'ch' sound after a short vowel, and the -ing ending simply marks the ongoing action. The shared ancestry with 'wake' is a handy reminder that the original idea was vigilance rather than mere seeing.
How the word is built
- watch (to look at, observe)
- -ing (present participle suffix)
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