- present participle of reward.
rewarding
Americanadjective
-
affording satisfaction, valuable experience, or the like; worthwhile.
-
affording financial or material gain; profitable.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of rewarding
Explanation
Things that satisfy you or make you happy are rewarding. Even if you love to learn, the most rewarding part of going to school for many of us is making good friends. The word reward is obvious when you look at the adjective rewarding, and rewarding things do give you a kind of reward. Rather than cash for finding a neighbor's lost cat, though, the reward you get from something rewarding is pleasure or satisfaction. Watching a great movie is rewarding, and so is doing something kind for another person. You might even get lucky and have a rewarding career, or even a rewarding life.
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.
A thematic cousin, “Black Coral” by Mr. Stills, centers on how scuba diving becomes more spiritually rewarding the deeper you go.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
Dunn, who graduated this year, said the research project had been "rewarding and positive".
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
News has made over the past few years to focus the rankings more on rewarding schools that help students succeed after college and less for the caliber of students they admit on the front end.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
Having an evidence-based framework could make the decision easier and more rewarding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
The teacher was rewarding Shin for good behavior.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
