# calling

Pronunciation: say "KAW-ling" US /ˈkɔlɪŋ/, UK /ˈkɔːlɪŋ/

## Verb

1. Present participle and gerund of call. — present participle and gerund of call
   - Simple: Present participle and gerund of call. Use it after words like 'is' or 'was', or as a noun.
   - _The teacher was calling out names from the attendance list._
   - _He spent the whole morning calling clients about the delay._

## Noun

2. A strong inner sense that one is meant for a particular kind of work or way of life, often a religious one.
   - Simple: A strong feeling that you are meant for a certain kind of work or life, often a religious one.
   - _After years of doubt, she finally answered her calling and entered the seminary._
   - _He described his calling as an unshakable pull toward the priesthood._
3. A person's trade or profession: the actual work someone does for a living, rather than an inner sense of being drawn to it.
   - Simple: A job or the kind of work a person does.
   - _He was a printer by calling, though in his spare hours he wrote poems that no one else ever read._
   - _Teaching turned out to be a steadier calling than she had expected._

## Origin

**Meaning 1** — Built from "call" and the suffix "-ing", it goes back through Middle English callyng to Old English *cealliende and Old Norse kallandi.
**Meanings 2–3** — From Middle English calling, equivalent to "call" plus the suffix "-ing".

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/calling (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).