Basic Details
Word: Expressing
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Showing or putting into words a thought or feeling, through speech, writing, art or a look on your face.
Synonyms: conveying, stating, voicing, showing
Antonyms: hiding, concealing, suppressing
How to Spell Expressing
Syllables: ex - press - ing
Tricky part: Express ends in a double s, and both s's stay before ing. Students who rush write expresing with one s.
Watch out for: expresing, exprassing, expresseing
Memory tip: An express train runs on two rails, and express runs on two s's; the rails do not stop when ing is added.
Usage Examples
Example 1: Riya is better at expressing her ideas in writing than in speech.
Example 2: The dancer was expressing sorrow through slow movements of her hands.
Example 3: Thank you for expressing your doubts in class instead of keeping quiet.
Fun Fact
To express juice from a fruit means to squeeze it out. The word comes from the Latin exprimere, to press out, and only later came to mean pressing out thoughts in words.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word expressing as used in the sentence:
In her letter to the editor, the student was expressing concern about the broken streetlights near her school.
a) ignoring
b) hiding
c) solving
d) voicing
Show answer
d) voicing. To voice a concern is to say it aloud, which is what expressing means here.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
The class wrote poems expresing their feelings about the old banyan tree that was cut down to widen the road near the school gate.
a) poems
b) expresing
c) widen
d) feelings
Show answer
b) expresing. Express already ends in ss, and ing is simply added: express + ing.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
Many children find drawing an easy way of sgnixespre what they feel.
a) expressing
b) impressing
c) exposing
d) exploring
Show answer
a) expressing. Try each word against the jumble: exploring and exposing need an o, and impressing an i and an m, but expressing uses every letter.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A face that is expressing joy is most likely ____.
a) yawning
b) frowning
c) crying
d) smiling
Show answer
d) smiling
2. Which noun comes from the verb express?
a) expression
b) impression
c) depression
d) compression
Show answer
a) expression
