Winning

How to spell winning

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce winning

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does winning mean?

1. adjectiveThat has won or secures a victory or prize.
2. adjectiveCharming or engaging in a way that wins people over.
3. nounThe action of being successful in a contest, game, or prize.

Winning in a sentence

• adjective

  The winning team lifted the trophy at the end of the match.

• adjective

  Her winning smile put the nervous interviewer at ease.

• noun

  Winning the regional final qualified them for the national round.

• adjective

  She checked her winning lottery ticket against the published numbers.

• adjective

  The candidate had a winning manner that impressed the whole panel.

• noun

  For her, winning mattered far less than playing well.

Where does winning come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the present participle of the verb 'win', which descends from the Old English 'winnan', a word that originally meant 'to labour, struggle, or fight' rather than simply to triumph. That older sense of effortful contest gradually narrowed so that 'win' came to mean succeeding in the struggle, that is, gaining a victory or a prize. The 'winnan' root has Germanic relatives across the family, including the Dutch 'winnen' and the German 'gewinnen', both carrying the same idea of gaining through effort. The participle form doubles the final 'n' before the '-ing' ending because the verb has a short stressed vowel, a regular spelling rule that also produces 'running' and 'beginning'. That doubled 'n' is the small trap worth remembering: the base word 'win' already ends in 'n', and the suffix adds a second one.

How the word is built

• win (root: to be victorious)
• -n- (doubled consonant)
• -ing (present participle / adjectival suffix)