Word.ws English Dictionary

approaching

UK/əˈpɹəʊt͡ʃɪŋ//əˈpɹoʊt͡ʃɪŋ/

approaching adjective: that approaches or approach. Also the present participle and gerund of approach.

Adjective

approaching (not comparable)

  1. That approaches or approach.
    • the approaching armies

Adverb

approaching (not comparable)

  1. Nearly.
    • The evacuation of approaching 200,000 people, along with reports of high radiation levels, of burning spent fuel, and apocalyptic footage of plumes of debris erupting from the stricken plant, will revive a question that seemed to have been retreating from global concerns: how safe is nuclear power?2011 March 16, “There's more to fear from nature than nuclear power”, in Opinion, New Scientist

Noun

approaching (plural approachings)

  1. The act of coming closer; an approach.
    • But we can also take a more analytical attitude to these displays, interpreting the movements as no more than approachings, touchings, and departings with no implication that one shape caused the other to move.2011, Lance J. Rips, Lines of Thought: Central Concepts in Cognitive Psychology, page 168

Also used as

approaching is also the present participle and gerund of approach.

approaching meaning in Malayalam and Kannada

approaching in Malayalam

സമീപിക്കുന്നു

approaching in Kannada

ಸಮೀಪಿಸುವುದು

Forms of approaching

pluralapproachings

Origin of approaching

By surface analysis, approach + -ing.

Phrases with approaching

Questions about approaching

What does approaching mean?
Approaching means that approaches or approach.
What is approaching in Malayalam?
Approaching in Malayalam is സമീപിക്കുന്നു. See Approaching meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is approaching?
Approaching can be an adjective, an adverb or a noun.
How do you pronounce approaching?
Approaching is pronounced /əˈpɹoʊt͡ʃɪŋ/ (US).

Words near approaching in the dictionary

  1. approacher
  2. approachers
  3. approaches
  4. approachest
  5. approacheth
  6. approaching
  7. approachingly
  8. approachings
  9. approachless
  10. approachment
  11. approachments

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: approaching (page history and authors); approaching (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); approaching (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-approaching.ogg.

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