Word.ws English Dictionary

discouraging

/dɪsˈkʌɹ.ɪ.d͡ʒɪŋ/US/dɪsˈkɝ.ɪ.d͡ʒɪŋ/

discouraging is the present participle and gerund of discourage.

Meaning of discourage

Verb

discourage (third-person singular simple present discourages, present participle discouraging, simple past and past participle discouraged)

  1. (transitive) To extinguish the courage of; to dishearten; to depress the spirits of; to deprive of confidence; to deject.
    • Don't be discouraged by the amount of work left to do: you'll finish it in good time.
    Synonyms:
    dash
  2. (transitive) To persuade somebody not to do (something).
    • Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can.1854, Abraham Lincoln., Notes for a Law Lecture

See all 3 meanings of discourage

Adjective

discouraging

  1. That causes discouragement.
    • Near-synonyms: disheartening; see also Thesaurus:disheartening
    • Oh, give me a home where the Buffalo roam / Where the Deer and the Antelope play; / Where never is heard a discouraging word, / And the sky is not clouded all day1876, Brewster Higley, “A Home on the Range”

Noun

discouraging (plural discouragings)

  1. discouragement
    • August 6, 1841, Lydia Ann Barclay, letter to J. B.
      But, alas! I fear the health of the better part is dwindling instead of increasing, through letting in the enemy's discouragings, and a want of feeling after the daily sap of life, whereby strength would be received to overcome all obstacles […]

Synonyms of discouraging

Forms of discouraging

pluraldiscouragings

Words formed from discouraging

Questions about discouraging

What does discouraging mean?
Discouraging means that causes discouragement.
What is discouraging the present participle and gerund of?
Discouraging is the present participle and gerund of discourage.
What part of speech is discouraging?
Discouraging can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce discouraging?
Discouraging is pronounced /dɪsˈkʌɹ.ɪ.d͡ʒɪŋ/ (UK).

Words near discouraging in the dictionary

  1. discourager
  2. discouragers
  3. discourages
  4. discouragest
  5. discourageth
  6. discouraging
  7. discouragingly
  8. discouragings
  9. discource
  10. discources
  11. discoure

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: discouraging (page history and authors); discourage (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-discouraging.wav.

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