Word.ws English Dictionary

stimming

stimming is the present participle and gerund of stim.

Meaning of stim

Verb

stim (third-person singular simple present stims, present participle stimming, simple past and past participle stimmed)

  1. (intransitive) To perform such a repetitive self-stimulatory action.
    • Autistic people often stim with the help of technologies such as music and stim toys or tools to mediate between inner worlds and outer environments that may over/underwhelm us.2021, Erin Felepchuk, “Stimming, Improvisation, and COVID-19: (Re)negotiating Autistic Sensory Regulation During a Pandemic”, in Disability Studies Quarterly, volume 41, number 3, archived from the...

See all 6 meanings of stim

Noun

stimming (uncountable)

  1. Self-stimulation, especially in the context of autism, ADHD, and neurodivergence.
    • If you think about it, most of us, from time to time, do typical or what we might call “normal” stimming-type behaviors like drumming our fingers on a desk; wiggling or tapping a pencil; pacing back and forth; bouncing a knee up and down; twirling a lock of hair; or even humming. The difference...2017 February 24, Mary Bailey, “Stimming: An Unexpected Pathway to Personal Creativity & Success”, in HuffPost, retrieved 15 Apr 2026
    • Medical culture constrains stimming through strict clinical designations and pathologizing definitions, referring to it as stereotypies or "self-stimulatory behaviours." Autistic people, however, often define stimming more broadly as repetitive sensory practices used to regulate emotional states...2021, Erin Felepchuk, “Stimming, Improvisation, and COVID-19: (Re)negotiating Autistic Sensory Regulation During a Pandemic”, in Disability Studies Quarterly, volume 41, number 3, archived from the...

Questions about stimming

What does stimming mean?
Stimming means self-stimulation, especially in the context of autism, ADHD, and neurodivergence.
What is stimming the present participle and gerund of?
Stimming is the present participle and gerund of stim.
What part of speech is stimming?
Stimming is a noun.

Words near stimming in the dictionary

  1. Stimmel
  2. Stimmels
  3. stimmer
  4. stimmers
  5. stimmies
  6. stimming
  7. Stimmler syndrome
  8. stimmy
  9. Stimpmeter
  10. Stimpmeters
  11. Stimpson

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stimming (page history and authors); stim (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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Cite this entry: “stimming.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stimming. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.