sporting

Syllables: spor·ting/ˈspɔɹtɪŋ/

sporting is the present participle and gerund of sport.

Adjective

sporting (comparative more sporting, superlative most sporting)

(not comparable) Pertaining to sports
- He got a job in a sporting goods store.
(comparable) Exhibiting sportsmanship.
- Quite sporting of you to call that foul on yourself.
(comparable) Fair, generous; game.
- It was very sporting of her to let us off like that.
(not comparable, obsolete) Of or relating to unseemly male excesses, especially gambling, prostitution, or similar recreational activities.
- New Yorkers coined the term “sporting culture” to identify the boisterous male culture then on display on the city's streets.2015, Michael Pierson, “Stephen Spaulding's Fourth of July in New Orleans”, in Slap, Andrew L., Towers, Frank, editors, Confederate Cities: The Urban South during the Civil War Era, University of...

sport (third-person singular simple present sports, present participle sporting, simple past and past participle sported)

(intransitive) To amuse oneself, to play.
- children sporting on the green
(intransitive) To mock or tease, treat lightly, toy with.
- Jen sports with Bill's emotions.
(transitive) To display; to have as a notable feature.
- Jen's sporting a new pair of shoes; he was sporting a new wound from the combat
Synonyms:

rock, wear
(reflexive) To divert; to amuse; to make merry.
- Against whom do ye sport yourselves?1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 57:4
(transitive) To represent by any kind of play.
- Now sporting on thy lyre the loves of youth.1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Sixth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […]...
To practise the diversions of the field or the turf; to be given to betting, as upon races.

sporting (plural sportings)

The act of taking part in a sport.
- […] the unprofitable plays, frivolous recreations, sportings, and gamings which are invented to pass away the precious time, and divert the mind from the witness of God […]c. 1675, Robert Barclay, An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

By surface analysis, sport + -ing.

What does sporting mean?: Sporting means pertaining to sports.
What is sporting the present participle and gerund of?: Sporting is the present participle and gerund of sport.
What part of speech is sporting?: Sporting can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce sporting?: Sporting is pronounced /ˈspɔɹtɪŋ/.

Adapted from Wiktionary: sporting (page history and authors); sport (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: 2026-09-02

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