trending

Pluraltrendings

1. 1
   adjective

   Currently popular, or becoming more popular.

   The hashtag stayed trending for three days after the launch.

   Retailers rush to stock whatever colors are trending each season.

   Similarpopular, hot

   Note

   A marketing and internet word for momentum rather than standing. Hot and sought-after describe what people already want, while trending says interest is climbing right now, often on social media. It does not grade: a topic is trending or it is not, so "very trending" and "more trending" sound wrong. It most often follows be or what's, as in what's trending on social media.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of trend.

   Voter opinion is trending against the new policy.

   Housing prices have been trending downward since spring.

   Note

   Several quite different verbs stand behind this -ing form. The commonest pairs it with a direction (trending downward, trending against the policy) and builds progressives with be: prices are trending, have been trending. The informal sense of being currently popular needs no direction at all (the topic is trending), and it shades into the "popular" adjective. A transitive "bend" and a verb for cleaning wool share the spelling too.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   An inclination or movement in a particular direction.

   Economists noted a long-term trending toward urban living.

   The trending of public taste away from formal wear accelerated in the 1960s.

   Similartrend, tendency, shift, drift, movement

   Note

   An older word than its modern look suggests: it descends from Middle English trendinge, and its history is separate from the internet adjective. It names the lie or run of something, and it can be counted and pluralized. In the phrase the trendings of the coast, it means the successive directions a shoreline takes as it bends along its length.

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