belonging

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /bɪˈlɔŋɪŋ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɪˈlɒŋɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒŋɪŋ
• Hyphenation: be‧long‧ing

Etymology 1

From Middle English belonginge, belanging, belangand, equivalent to belong +‎ -ing.

Verb

belonging

1. present participle of belong

Etymology 2

From belong +‎ -ing.

Noun

belonging (countable and uncountable, plural belongings)

1. (uncountable) The feeling that one belongs.

   I have a feeling of belonging in London.

   A need for belonging seems fundamental to humans.

2. (countable, chiefly in the plural) Something physical that is owned.

   Make sure you take all your belongings when you leave.

   • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act I, Scene 1,^[1]

     […] Thyself and thy belongings

     Are not thine own so proper as to waste

     Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.

   • 1939, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, New York: Compass, 1958, Chapter 9, p. 117,^[2]

     In the little houses the tenant people sifted their belongings and the belongings of their fathers and of their grandfathers. Picked over their possessions for the journey to the west.

   • 1966, Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, New York: Modern Library, 1992, Part I, p. 22,^[3]

     Now, upstairs, she changed into faded Levis and a green sweater, and fastened round her wrist her third most valued belonging, a gold watch […]

3. (plural only, colloquial, dated) family; relations; household.
   • 1854, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes, London: Bradbury & Evans, Chapter 33, p. 322,^[4]

     When Lady Kew said Sic volo, sic jubeo [Thus I will, thus I command], I promise you few persons of her ladyship’s belongings stopped, before they did her biddings, to ask her reasons.

   • 1896, Joseph Conrad, An Outcast of the Islands, Part II, Chapter Three,^[5]

     As soon as the principal personages were seated, the verandah of the house was filled silently by the muffled-up forms of Lakamba’s female belongings.

Synonyms

• (something physical that is owned): possession, thing

Translations

the action of the verb to belong

• French: appartenance (fr) f
• Interlingue: pertenentie
• Portuguese: pertencimento m
• Russian: принадле́жность (ru) f (prinadléžnostʹ)

• Spanish: pertenencia (es) f
• Swedish: tillhörighet (sv) c

something physical that is owned

• French: affaire (fr) f, possession (fr) f, bien (fr) m
• Galician: pertenza f
• German: Sache (de) f, Eigentum (de) n
• Ngazidja Comorian: hindru class 7/8

• Russian: со́бственность (ru) f (sóbstvennostʹ)
• Spanish: pertenencias (es) f pl ; (colloquial or jocular usages) cachachá m (Venezuela), chivas (es) m pl (Mexico), macundales m pl (Venezuela), maritates (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua)
• Swedish: tillhörighet (sv) c, ägodel (sv)

Anagrams

• englobing