complementing
- 1Present participle and gerund of complement.
The chef served a light sauce complementing the richness of the duck.
Complementing the existing survey with field data strengthened the report.
Note
The -ing form sits one letter away from a different verb. Complementing means completing, or supplying what a partner lacks; praising is complimenting, with an i. Spelling the praise with an e was once accepted and now reads as a misspelling. A quick test: "rounding out" takes the e, "flattering" the i. Technical writers also use it for turning a number, voltage or color into its complement.
complementing is a form of complement
complement, verb: To supply what another thing lacks while lacking what it supplies, so that the two together form a whole. Full entry
- Forms
- complementcomplements he/she/itcomplementing -ing formcomplemented past tense, past participle
- Spelling
- complement → complementing: add -ing
Use it in a sentence
Write your own sentence with complementing, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.