Wrecking

How to spell wrecking

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce wrecking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does wrecking mean?

1. verbDestroying, ruining, or violently breaking something so it can no longer function.

Wrecking in a sentence

• The constant overtime was wrecking his health and his marriage.

• A sudden storm was wrecking the small boats moored in the harbour.

Where does wrecking come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This word grows from the noun and verb 'wreck', which came into Middle English from Anglo-Norman 'wrec', itself rooted in Old Norse 'vrek', meaning something driven ashore by the sea, ultimately tied to the verb 'reka', 'to drive'. The earliest sense was very literal: goods or timber cast up on a coast after a ship broke apart. From that maritime disaster the meaning broadened to any act of smashing, ruining, or demolishing, and the '-ing' form arose naturally as the ongoing-action version of the verb. The silent initial 'w', shared with relatives like 'wring', 'wrist', and 'wrench', is a fossil of an old Germanic spelling once actually pronounced, and it is exactly that quiet 'w' that trips writers who spell it phonetically as 'recking'. By the time English settled its spelling in the 1500s the 'wr-' cluster was no longer sounded, yet the letter stayed on the page.

How the word is built

• wreck (to destroy or ruin)
• -ing (present participle / gerund suffix)