Word.ws English Dictionary

thronging

thronging is the present participle and gerund of throng.

Meaning of throng

Verb

throng (third-person singular simple present throngs, present participle thronging, simple past and past participle thronged)

  1. (transitive) To crowd into a place, especially to fill it.
    • By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court
  2. (intransitive) To congregate.
    • […]I have seen the dumb men throng to see him and / The blind to bear him speak:[…]c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  3. (transitive) To crowd or press, as persons; to oppress or annoy with a crowd of living beings.
    • Much people followed him, and thronged him.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 5:24

See all 7 meanings of throng

Noun

thronging (plural throngings)

  1. The act of those who throng or form a crowd.
    • Tooth-drawers' bills, and tedious proclamations / In meal-markets, with throngings to see cutpurses […]c. 1614, John Fletcher, “Wit Without Money, a Comedy”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act IV, scene v

Adjective

thronging (comparative more thronging, superlative most thronging)

  1. Of something that throngs.
    • Look at the arduous exertion required of middle life; the thronging anxieties that spring up for others more than for ourselves;...1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 312

Forms of thronging

Noun
pluralthrongings
Adjective
comparativemore thronging
superlativemost thronging

Questions about thronging

What does thronging mean?
Thronging means the act of those who throng or form a crowd.
What is thronging the present participle and gerund of?
Thronging is the present participle and gerund of throng.
What part of speech is thronging?
Thronging can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of thronging?
The plural of thronging is throngings.

Words near thronging in the dictionary

  1. throng
  2. thronged
  3. thronger
  4. throngers
  5. throngful
  6. thronging
  7. throngingly
  8. throngings
  9. throngly
  10. throngs
  11. throngy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thronging (page history and authors); throng (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: “thronging.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thronging. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.