Word.ws English Dictionary

allowing

/əˈlaʊɪŋ/

allowing is the present participle and gerund of allow.

Meaning of allow

Verb

allow (third-person singular simple present allows, present participle allowing, simple past and past participle allowed)

  1. (ditransitive) To let one have as a suitable share of something.
    • to allow a servant his liberty; to allow a free passage; to allow one day for rest
  2. (intransitive) To present something as possible or reasonable.
    • The event allows of only one interpretation.
  3. (catenative, transitive) To permit, to give permission to.
    • I will allow my son to be absent.
    Synonyms:
    permit, let, grant licence to, consent, grant
  4. To not bar or obstruct.
    • Although I don't consent to their holding such meetings, I will allow them for the time being.
  5. (transitive) To acknowledge, accept the truth of; to concede; to accede to an opinion; to say something one agrees on in the context of a larger disagreement or reluctance.
    • to allow a right; to allow a claim; to allow an appeal
  6. (transitive) To grant (something) as a deduction or an addition; especially to abate or deduct.
    • to allow a sum for leakage

See all 13 meanings of allow

Forms of allowing

comparativemore allowing
superlativemost allowing

Words formed from allowing

Phrases with allowing

Questions about allowing

What is allowing the present participle and gerund of?
Allowing is the present participle and gerund of allow.
How do you pronounce allowing?
Allowing is pronounced /əˈlaʊɪŋ/.

Words near allowing in the dictionary

  1. allower
  2. allowers
  3. allowest
  4. alloweth
  5. allowin'
  6. allowing
  7. allowing for
  8. allowing nature to take her course
  9. allowing nature to take its course
  10. allowingly
  11. allowlist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: allowing (page history and authors); allow (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-allowing.ogg.

Cite this entry: “allowing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/allowing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.