sleeping C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities US /ˈslipɪŋ/ UK /ˈsliːpɪŋ/ See IPA manual Meanings 1 adj being asleep, or temporarily inactive or dormant They tiptoed past the sleeping infant. Thesaurus Synonyms 1 adj · being asleep, or... dormantasleepinactiveslumberingrestinglatent ↔ Opposites awakeactivewaking Word family Related forms sleepsleeperasleep Common collocations sleeping tablet Noun + noun Etymology AI details The present participle of sleep, from Old English slæpan ('to sleep'), from Proto-Germanic *slēpaną. slæpan Old English *slēpaną Proto-Germanic View etymology graph -> Topics Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives External links Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary Google Images # sleeping **Type:** Word **Level:** C2+ **Part of speech:** adj **IPA (US):** /ˈslipɪŋ/ **IPA (UK):** /ˈsliːpɪŋ/ ## Meanings 1. being asleep, or temporarily inactive or dormant ## Examples - They tiptoed past the sleeping infant. ## Synonyms - dormant - asleep - inactive - slumbering - resting - latent ## Antonyms - awake - active - waking ## Related Forms - sleep - sleeper - asleep ## Roots and Affixes - Root: slæpan - Root: *slēpaną ## Etymology The present participle of sleep, from Old English slæpan ('to sleep'), from Proto-Germanic *slēpaną. ## AI Etymology Sleeping is the present participle of sleep, from Old English slæpan ('to sleep'), from Proto-Germanic *slēpaną. The historical chain includes Old English slæpan and Proto-Germanic *slēpaną. The quoted older sense, "to sleep," supplies the immediate semantic anchor for sleeping. The formation is best read as participial and borrowed: the word sleeping carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a adj, "being asleep, or temporarily inactive or dormant". Related English forms include sleep, sleeper, and asleep. The result is a adj and noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization. ## Topics - Describing Qualities - Word Formation & Derivatives markdown