messaging

1. 1
   noununcountable

   Gerund of message.

   Group messaging let the team coordinate the launch without endless phone calls.

   Encrypted messaging protects the contents of a conversation from outside readers.

   Note

   The noun names the activity rather than any one message, as in group messaging, encrypted messaging and text messaging. It is usually uncountable and rarely takes a plural in everyday use. A plural does exist, though. Thomas Carlyle's 1872 translation of Saupe speaks of "all kinds of messagings, informings and insinuations." There it means the many separate messages passed to and fro around a person.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of message.

   They spent the whole evening messaging back and forth about the trip.

   I was messaging a colleague when the call came in.

   Note

   The verb behind this form takes its object in two ways. You can be messaging a colleague, the person you write to, or messaging the photos to her, the thing you send. It also stands alone, as in messaging back and forth. As a verb it keeps a direct object (messaging clients late is risky), while the noun for the activity takes adjectives instead, as in group messaging.

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