Belonging

//bɪˈlɒŋɪŋ// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The feeling that one belongs. uncountable

    "I have a feeling of belonging in London."

  2. 2
    happiness felt in a secure relationship wordnet
  3. 3
    Something physical that is owned. countable, in-plural

    "Make sure you take all your belongings when you leave."

  4. 4
    Family; relations; household. colloquial, countable, dated, plural, plural-only, uncountable

    "When Lady Kew said Sic volo, sic jubeo [Thus I will, thus I command], I promise you few persons of her ladyship’s belongings stopped, before they did her biddings, to ask her reasons."

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of belong form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms
admissibleappertainingapplicableappositeappropriateapropos

Example

More examples

"We regarded the document as belonging to her brother."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From belong + -ing.

Etymology 2

From Middle English belonginge, belanging, belangand, equivalent to belong + -ing.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.