gerund

American  

[jer-uhnd] / ˈdʒɛr ənd /

noun

Grammar.

gerunds plural

1. (in certain languages, as Latin) a form regularly derived from a verb and functioning as a noun, having in Latin all case forms but the nominative, as Latin dicendī genitive, dicendō dative, ablative, etc., “saying.”

2. the English -ing form of a verb when functioning as a noun, as writing in Writing is easy.

3. a form similar to the Latin gerund in meaning or function.

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gerund British  

/ ˈdʒɛrənd, dʒɪˈrʌndɪəl /

noun

1. a noun formed from a verb, denoting an action or state. In English, the gerund, like the present participle, is formed in -ing

   the living is easy

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gerund Cultural  

1. A form of a verb that ends in -ing and operates as a noun in a sentence: “Thinking can be painful.”

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Grammar

See me.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• gerundial
  adjective
• nongerundial
  adjective
• gerundially
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• gerunds
  plural

Etymology

Origin of gerund

First recorded in 1505–15; from Late Latin gerundium, Latin gerundum “that which is to be carried on,” equivalent to ger(ere) “to bear, carry on” + -undum, variant of -endum, gerund suffix

Compare meaning

How does gerund compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• gerund vs. participle
• gerund vs. infinitive
• present participle vs. gerund

Explanation

In English grammar, a gerund is a word based on a verb that functions as a noun in the sentence. For example, if you say "Sleeping is my favorite thing to do," "sleeping" is a gerund. Gerund comes from the Latin word gerundus, which means to carry on. In English, gerunds can be the subject of the sentence, the direct object, or the indirect object, and they always end in "ing." They are verbs that are acting as nouns. In the sentence, "You may like writing, but it's clear you don't like grammar," the word "writing" is a gerund.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gerund gerunds

Yglesias named his Substack “Slow Boring,” after a 1919 lecture by the German sociologist Max Weber titled “Politics as a Vocation,” wherein “boring” is not an adjective of dullness but a gerund of diligence.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 11, 2023

His intentional use of a gerund in the title allows “entertaining” to be read as both doing a thing and being a thing.

From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2021

First off, nice possessive before a gerund, Jordan!

From Golf Digest ● Apr. 6, 2020

He pumped the beat, a Ugandan jive, and after shouting the gerund a few more times, he finally came to its object: “Rep-re-sen-ting UUUUUUUUUU-gan-da!”

From The Guardian ● May 18, 2016

The remaining tenses of the optative, subjunctive, gerund, and infinitive are formed in the same way and with the same particles as are used for each in the first conjugation.

From Diego Collado's Grammar of the Japanese Language by Spear, Richard L.

“TiVoing,” meaning to record a show for later viewing, even became one of those generic gerunds, like “Xeroxing” or “Googling.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2025

Nearly every other sentence contains pungent Anglo-Saxon nouns and gerunds.

From New York Times ● Sep. 16, 2019

Muir and “WNT’s” reporters frequently eschew verbs, replacing them with gerunds in a kind of headline-style speed talk.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 1, 2015

Though in the Texas twang, he drops the g’s from his gerunds.

From Time ● Sep. 8, 2011

I lacked even a basic knowledge of grammar, though I was learning, beginning with nouns and moving on to prepositions and gerunds.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover