Weeping

How to spell weeping

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce weeping

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does weeping mean?

1. verbShedding tears as an expression of grief, pain, or strong emotion.
2. adjectiveDescribing a plant or tree whose branches hang down gracefully toward the ground.

Weeping in a sentence

• verb

  The child sat weeping quietly after dropping the ice cream.

• adjective

  A large weeping willow shaded the corner of the garden.

• verb

  She could hear someone weeping in the next room.

• adjective

  They planted a weeping cherry beside the patio for its trailing blossom.

Where does weeping come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from the Old English verb wepan, meaning 'to cry, to mourn, to shed tears', a thoroughly native English word with roots in the Germanic family of languages. Scholars believe wepan was originally imitative, echoing the sound of loud crying or wailing, so the word may once have referred as much to the noise of grief as to the tears themselves. The -ing ending is the ordinary present participle and gerund marker, and over time the participle 'weeping' also became an adjective describing things that droop or trickle as if shedding tears, as in a weeping willow or a weeping wound. The spelling keeps the long double ee that English uses to mark the steady 'ee' vowel, which is why writers rarely trip over it. A cousin in the same Germanic stock survives in regional and older English as 'wop' or 'whoop', linked to that same idea of a loud cry.

How the word is built

• weep (to cry, from Old English wepan)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)