Word.ws English Dictionary

toughening

toughening is the present participle and gerund of toughen.

Meaning of toughen

Verb

toughen (third-person singular simple present toughens, present participle toughening, simple past and past participle toughened)

  1. (transitive) To make tough.
    • The new training program is designed to toughen the athletes.
  2. (intransitive) To become tough.

Noun

toughening (plural toughenings)

  1. The process of making something tougher.

Forms of toughening

pluraltoughenings

Phrases with toughening

Questions about toughening

What does toughening mean?
Toughening means the process of making something tougher.
What is toughening the present participle and gerund of?
Toughening is the present participle and gerund of toughen.
What part of speech is toughening?
Toughening is a noun.
What is the plural of toughening?
The plural of toughening is toughenings.

Words near toughening in the dictionary

  1. toughenable
  2. toughened
  3. toughened up
  4. toughener
  5. tougheners
  6. toughening
  7. toughening up
  8. toughenings
  9. toughens
  10. toughens up
  11. tougher

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: toughening (page history and authors); toughen (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:

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