responding

Pluralrespondings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of respond.

   Emergency crews are responding to the flood downtown.

   The patient is responding well to the new medication.

   Note

   One spelling does two grammatical jobs. After a form of be, it is a participle building the progressive (crews are responding). In subject or object position, it is a gerund: a verbal noun that still behaves like a verb, taking adverbs and a to-phrase (responding quickly to calls is the job). That verbal behavior separates it from the countable noun, which takes a plural and adjectives instead.

2. 2
   noun

   An answer or reaction made in reply to something.

   Similarresponse, reply, reaction, answer

   Note

   A true countable noun, able to take a plural and an adjective. William Scoresby's Memorials of the Sea (1835) describes a shout of success from the pursuing boats "followed by vehement respondings from the contiguous ship". The answer here is a cry sent back across the water, an exchange of voices. In ordinary prose, response does the same work.

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