reassuring

American

[ree-uh-shoor-ing, -shur-] / ˌri əˈʃʊər ɪŋ, -ˈʃɜr- /

adjective

restoring or boosting confidence, certainty, or security.

All children deserve safety, comfort, privacy, and reassuring routines.
The reassuring news is that the insects don't carry nearly enough of the virus to infect a human.

noun

the act or process of restoring or boosting confidence, certainty, or security.

One drawback is that telemedicine does not allow for the physical comforting and reassuring of a patient.

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of reassuring

First recorded in 1700–10; reassur(e) ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. ) for the adjective senses; reassur(e) ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. ) for the noun sense

Explanation

Something reassuring comforts or inspires you. A reassuring smile can help to calm a nervous speaker who's about to give a speech. When you're anxious about singing in the talent show, some reassuring words from your best friend or your dad's reassuring hug can make you feel much more relaxed and confident. And fearful flyers sometimes find the calm voice of the captain reassuring. This adjective comes from the verb reassure, or "restore to confidence," which adds re-, or "again," to assure, which has the Latin root securus, "safe or secure."

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"Once you do the calculation, the answer is clear and surprisingly reassuring," said Bortolotti.

From Science Daily • May 3, 2026

They looked set to make a swift recovery after hard-drive maker Seagate beat on earnings and sales and issued strong guidance for its fiscal fourth quarter, reassuring investors that data-storage demand remains strong.

From Barron's • Apr. 29, 2026

I rotated through a greatest-hits lineup: Martha Stewart, Jacques Pépin, Samin Nosrat, Ina Garten, J. Kenji López-Alt — each one offering a slightly different path to the same reassuring conclusion: this is not that hard.

From Salon • Apr. 26, 2026

Presumably intended to be reassuring, the thrust toward near-unanimity instead has become discrediting.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 23, 2026

The immediate appeal of Lamarck’s idea was that it offered a reassuring story of progress: all animals were progressively adapting to their environments, and thus progressively slouching along an evolutionary ladder toward perfection.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023