Basic Details
Word: Expanding
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Getting bigger in size, number or importance, or making something bigger.
Synonyms: growing, increasing, spreading, widening
Antonyms: shrinking, contracting, decreasing
How to Spell Expanding
Syllables: ex - pand - ing
Tricky part: Expand already ends in two consonants, nd, so ing is added straight on with no doubled letter. The vowel after p is a, not e.
Watch out for: expandding, expannding, expandeing
Memory tip: The little word and is hiding in the middle: ex + p + and + ing. Spot the and and the rest falls into place.
Usage Examples
Example 1: Our city is expanding so fast that farms near the highway have become housing colonies.
Example 2: The bakery is expanding its menu to include millet biscuits.
Example 3: Her vocabulary keeps expanding because she reads a chapter every night.
Fun Fact
Galaxies are moving away from one another, which shows that the universe itself is expanding. Edwin Hubble published key evidence for this in 1929.
Practise the CREST Way
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
Air keeps ngiandpex inside a hot-air balloon as the burner heats it.
a) expanding
b) explaining
c) expending
d) exploding
Show answer
a) expanding. The jumble has an a and a single e, which rules out expending; explaining and exploding both need an l.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
As the population of the town kept growing, the municipality began expannding the old water supply lines so that every new colony could get clean drinking water.
a) expannding
b) municipality
c) population
d) drinking
Show answer
a) expannding. Expand has one n before the d, and adding ing does not change that.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word expanding as used in the sentence:
The company is expanding its bus service to three more towns this year.
a) reducing
b) delaying
c) extending
d) cancelling
Show answer
c) extending. Extending a service means stretching it further, which is what expanding does here.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Pick the thing that is expanding:
a) an ice cube melting
b) a tyre going flat
c) a flower wilting
d) a cake rising in the oven
Show answer
d) a cake rising in the oven
2. A person with an expanding waistline is ____.
a) putting on weight
b) getting fitter
c) growing taller
d) losing weight
Show answer
a) putting on weight
