adjective

sounding

SOWN-dihng

adjective

Producing or giving off sound.

"A deep, sounding gong echoed through the temple."

noun

The act of measuring the depth of water, especially at sea, or of testing something by probing it.

"The crew took soundings to check the depth before entering the harbor."

"Doctors sometimes take soundings of a patient's opinion before recommending surgery, figuratively speaking."

How to Use Sounding

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishEither something that makes noise, or the act of measuring depth (literally, with a weighted line, or figuratively, testing opinion).

Common pairings

take soundings sounding board deep-sounding voice

soundings plural, soundings plural

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Can you complete this real example?

A deep, _____ gong echoed through the temple.

From sound (in the sense "to measure depth" or "produce a sound") plus the suffix -ing.

funding founding wounding pounding hounding rounding grounding astounding resounding surrounding