English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From belong +‎ -ing.

Noun

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belonging (countable and uncountable, plural belongings)

  1. (uncountable) The feeling that one belongs.
    I have a feeling of belonging in London.
    A need for belonging seems fundamental to humans.
  2. (countable, chiefly in the plural) Something physical that is owned.
    Synonyms: possession, thing
    Make sure you take all your belongings when you leave.
    • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
      [] Thyself and thy belongings
      Are not thine own so proper as to waste
      Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.
    • 1939 April 14, John Steinbeck, chapter 9, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, →OCLC; Compass Books edition, New York, N.Y.: The Viking Press, 1967, →OCLC, page 88:
      In the little houses the tenant people sifted their belongings and the belongings of their fathers and of their grandfathers. Picked over their possessions for the journey to the west.
    • 1966, Truman Capote, In Cold Blood[1], New York: Modern Library, published 1992, Part I, p. 22:
      Now, upstairs, she changed into faded Levis and a green sweater, and fastened round her wrist her third most valued belonging, a gold watch []
  3. (plural only, colloquial, dated) Family; relations; household.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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

Verb

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belonging

  1. present participle and gerund of belong

Anagrams

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