A complete, filterable list of 525+ English words ending in -ING — with definitions, word types, and difficulty ratings.
The "-ing" suffix is among the most productive in English. It turns any verb into a gerund (swimming is fun), a present participle (she is swimming), or an attributive adjective (a swimming pool). Because it is so common, "-ing" words saturate everyday speech and writing — every sentence with an ongoing action uses one.
Part of speech: Most are verbs acting as gerunds or present participles. Some are established nouns (morning, ceiling) or adjectives (amazing, surprising) that no longer feel like verb forms.
In board word games, "-ing" is valuable because you can extend many existing verb plays. Knowing which verbs take clean "-ing" forms (no doubled consonant, no dropped E) gives you a fast mental shortlist for tight spaces.
This list includes 525 English words ending in -ing, drawn from a curated dictionary of 10,000+ words spanning everyday vocabulary, academic terms, and word-game forms. The count focuses on base forms; inflected variants (e.g. plurals or conjugations) are counted separately.
Common examples from this list include: According, Amaz. Use the difficulty filter above to browse easy, medium, or hard words separately.
Most are verbs acting as gerunds or present participles. Some are established nouns (morning, ceiling) or adjectives (amazing, surprising) that no longer feel like verb forms. Use the "Type" filter above to narrow the list to nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs specifically.
Most standard words on this list are accepted in major Scrabble dictionaries (TWL, SOWPODS). Some hard-difficulty words are archaic, borrowed, or dialect forms whose validity can vary between rulesets — always verify against the official word list for your competition or app.