Words Ending in -ING — 525+ Words With Definitions

Last updated 2026-08-26.

What -ING does in a sentence

Most words on this list start as a verb, then pick up -ING. That ending can mean three different things. The rest of the sentence tells you which one you have:

A noun (gerund). The activity itself. Swimming is fun. You could swap in chess and it still works.
Part of the verb (present participle). Something happening now. She is swimming. Chess does not fit here.
A describing word. It sits in front of a noun. A swimming pool. The pool is not doing the swimming. The word just says what the pool is for.

A few -ING words barely feel like verbs anymore: morning, ceiling, evening, string, thing. People say them all the time without thinking of an original verb.

How to spell a verb + -ING

These three changes come up constantly in homework and games:

Drop a silent E. make → making, dance → dancing, write → writing. Do not write makeing.
Double the last letter when the verb is stressed on the last syllable and ends consonant-vowel-consonant. run → running, sit → sitting, begin → beginning. Leave it single when stress is earlier: open → opening.
Change IE to Y. die → dying, lie → lying, tie → tying. That spelling looks odd until you see it a few times.

Common examples

AmazingBeginningBeingBuildingCeilingComingDyingFeelingGettingMorningRunningWriting

Using -ING in Scrabble and word games

There’s no need to add the ‘-ING’ to your word rack. A better strategy would be to add ‘I,’ ‘N,’ or ‘G’ to a verb on the board. Those three tiles include a G, which adds 2 points, so it scores well. You can start with short verbs like SIT, RUN, ASK, but only adding ‘-ING’ isn’t as straightforward as you think. There are rules you need to follow. For example, for words ending in consonants, you can’t just add ‘-ING’ to RUN; you have to add another ‘N’, so ‘RUN’ becomes ‘RUNNING’. For words ending with a vowel, you’ll have to replace that vowel with ‘ING’, so ‘MAKE’ becomes ‘MAKING’, and ‘WRITE’ becomes ‘WRITING’. One exception is words ending in a consonant cluster; you don’t replace or add anything. So words like ‘ASK’ become ‘ASKING’, ‘JUMP’ becomes ‘JUMPING’. Once you know these rules, you can strategize how to add the I, N, or G tiles to the end of the words without guessing.

Frequently asked questions

How is "running" different from "runner"?

Runner names a person. Running is either the activity or the action happening right now. In Running is hard, it works like a noun (a gerund). In She is running, it is part of the verb (a present participle). Read the rest of the sentence to see which job it has.

Why do we double the N in "running" but not in "opening"?

Stress. Run is one syllable, so that syllable is stressed, and it ends consonant-vowel-consonant. That pattern doubles the last letter: running. Open is stressed on the first syllable (O-pen), so the N stays single: opening. Say the base verb out loud. If the last syllable is the loud one and it ends CVC, double the consonant before you add -ing.

Is it "dying" or "dyeing"?

Both, and they mean different things. Dying comes from die (death). Dyeing comes from dye (coloring fabric). The extra E in dyeing keeps the two words from looking the same. Most verbs drop a silent E before -ING. Dye keeps it so you can still see the original word.

What are some good -ING words for Scrabble?

Hook onto a short verb already on the board. SIT, RUN, DIG, WIN and HOP each take ING for a cheap three-tile extension. If you are holding I, N and G, hunt for an open T, N or K. Most words on this page are legal in TWL and SOWPODS. Check hard words against the dictionary your game uses.

How many words on this list are on the page?

525. They come from a 10,000-word dictionary that mixes everyday words, school vocabulary and word-game entries. Plurals and other inflected forms sit on their own pages instead of repeating here.