fulfilling

1. 1
   adjective

   Bringing a deep sense of satisfaction or contentment, especially in an emotional or artistic way.

   Like finishing a long hike and feeling that every step of effort was worth it.

   Teaching turned out to be the most fulfilling work she had ever done.

   Many painters describe their craft as more fulfilling than any commercial success.

   Similarsatisfying, rewarding, gratifying, worthwhile, meaningful

   Oppositeunrewarding, unsatisfying, frustrating

   Note

   Here the participle has become a true adjective, and grammar is the test: it takes more and most, as in a more fulfilling career or the most fulfilling work. Compare fulfilling a contract, where the word still has an object and belongs to the verb's -ing form. The adjective draws on just one strand of the verb, the sense of satisfying someone emotionally or artistically.

2. 2
   verbUS

   Present participle of fulfill.

   She is fulfilling the requirements for her degree this semester.

   The charity is fulfilling its mission to feed local families.

   Note

   As the -ing form of the verb, it carries every meaning fulfill has, not only the emotional one. It can mean meeting an obligation, complying with a rule, or, in commerce, packing and shipping orders. It still takes an object, which separates it from the adjective. The old sense of filling something to the brim survives only in archaic writing.

   The warehouse is fulfilling more online orders than ever.

   By fulfilling the residency rule, she qualified for the lower fee.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle of fulfil.

   The volunteers are fulfilling roles once handled by paid staff.

   He spent the whole year fulfilling a long-held ambition to sail solo.

   Note

   The British spelling with one l arrives at the same form, because fulfil doubles its final consonant before -ing. British and American writers therefore both write fulfilling. The spelling split shows in the base form, fulfil against fulfill. In the participle and gerund there is nothing to choose between them.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The carrying out or achievement of something, such as a promise, duty, or ambition.

   Like a seed finally reaching the moment it becomes the tree it was always meant to be.

   The fulfilling of every clause in the treaty took a decade of negotiation.

   Their long wait ended with the fulfilling of the ancient prophecy.

   Similarexecution, completion, realization, accomplishment

   Note

   A gerund that has hardened into a countable noun, so it can even be plural. John Bunyan, in Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ (1678), writes of absolute promises bringing about "their own fulfillings." It usually takes of after it, as in the fulfilling of a prophecy, and it names the act of carrying something out. Fulfilment is the plainer word for the same thing.

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