Showing results for "pursuing"

• present participle of pursue.

pursuing

American  

[per-soo-ing] / pərˈsu ɪŋ /

adjective

1. following someone or something in order to overtake, capture, woo, etc..

   Informed via radio that the alleged crime concerned an unpaid bill, the pursuing officers took down the vehicle's license plate information and stopped the chase.

2. continuing to accompany or affect someone, as success, bad luck, or fame.

   They renewed their love, were once more torn apart by pursuing misfortune, but in the end were happily reunited.

3. following or seeming to follow someone or something with one’s eyes, voice, thoughts, etc..

   He stared fearfully at the pursuing eyes of a portrait on the wall.

4. following or coming immediately after; ensuing.

   The program focuses on core courses in the first semester, and allows students to take their electives in the pursuing two semesters.

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Other Word Forms

• unpursuing
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of pursuing

pursu(e) ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. )

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Explanation

When someone is described as pursuing, they are following or chasing another person (or thing) with the intent to catch. The pursuing player in a game of "tag" is "it," or the one doing the chasing. During a traditional English fox hunt, the barking dogs are the pursing animals, and the foxes are the ones being hunted. And during a typical cops-and-robbers chase, the pursuing officers are the ones in the police car with the siren blaring, racing after the getaway car. Pursuing and its related verb pursue come from the Latin prosequi, "follow or follow after."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pursuing

The robotics field is pursuing the same playbook that powered the rise of large language models, aiming to teach AI models about the physical world by feeding them as much data as possible.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026

Legal experts have cautioned that pursuing companies linked to the smoke is challenging, with investigations reliant on cooperation from foreign authorities.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

He had no regrets about pursuing Mamdani to the vigil.

From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026

In an email response to The Times, Kimberly Edds, spokesperson for the district attorney, said prosecutors were instead pursuing a probation violation against Lopez.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026

As time passed, the bands spread far and wide, pursuing mammoths, mastodons, rhinoceroses and reindeer.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

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