Ing Word Family – Words Ending in -ing, From King to Spring

All 49 words

List 1: one letter before -ing (king) 7

ding The oven timer went ding at last.
king The paper king wore a foil crown.
ping Each hailstone made a ping on the gutter.
ring A ring of mushrooms grew on the lawn.
sing We sing the cleanup song every afternoon.
wing The moth had an eye spot on each wing.
zing Lemon juice gives the soup some zing.

List 2: two or three letters before -ing (bring) 10

bring Bring a flashlight for the walk home.
cling Static makes the balloon cling to the wall.
fling Do not fling your backpack across the hall.
sling He wore his sore arm in a sling.
spring A spring popped out of the old pen.
sting The cold wind made my cheeks sting.
string Tie the kite string to your wrist.
swing The porch swing creaks when two people sit.
thing What is that fuzzy thing under the couch?
wring Wring the sponge out over the sink.

Show all 49 words (32 more)

List 3: longer words that rhyme (plaything) 12

anything Is there anything left in the picnic basket?
bowstring The archer waxed her bowstring before the match.
drawstring Pull the drawstring to close the laundry bag.
everything Mud covered everything after the storm passed.
handspring She landed a handspring on the gym mat.
lapwing A lapwing called out over the wet field.
offspring The barn cat hid her offspring in the hay.
plaything The kitten's favorite plaything is a bottle cap.
shoestring A knot in my shoestring made me late.
upswing Ticket sales were on the upswing by Friday.
waxwing A waxwing perched on the top fence wire.
wellspring The old library is a wellspring of stories.

List 4: -ing said quietly (morning) 12

building The tallest building in town has a clock.
duckling One duckling paddled behind the others.
earring She found the lost earring in her boot.
evening The porch lights come on every evening.
morning Fog hid the bridge until late morning.
nothing Nothing beats cold lemonade after mowing.
painting Her painting of a barn won a ribbon.
pudding Stir the pudding so it does not stick.
seedling Water the tomato seedling every other day.
sibling Each sibling took a turn washing the dog.
something Something rattled inside the wrapped box.
wedding My cousin carried the rings at the wedding.

List 5: -ing added to an -ing word (singing) 8

bringing Who is bringing the napkins and cups?
clinging A burr was clinging to the dog's ear.
flinging The puppy kept flinging its toy in the air.
ringing The phone kept ringing during supper.
singing The kettle started singing on the stove.
springing Crocuses are springing up beside the path.
stinging Sleet came stinging against the bus windows.
swinging The monkey was swinging by one long arm.

How this list was compiled: Words chosen and sorted into 5 lists for Homeroom Tools. The choice, the sorting and the sentences are ours; no published list, program or workbook was opened or copied. SOUND AND SPELLING: every word was looked up on 14 October 2026 in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q= plus the word) for the sound of its ending and for a second spelling on the headword line, and each has an English entry in Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/, CC BY-SA 4.0). The dictionary writes the ending of all 49 words as ĭng, with the short i of pin. The words of Lists 1 and 2 have one syllable. On List 3 the last syllable carries a stress mark; on Lists 4 and 5 it carries none, so those words do not rhyme with king. That a rhyme needs the same stressed vowel is from Wikipedia's Perfect and imperfect rhymes article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_and_imperfect_rhymes). The eight words of List 5 are the -ing forms the dictionary prints on its pages for sing, ring, bring, swing, sting, cling, fling and spring. WORD FAMILY is used as in Wikipedia's Phonics article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonics): words that share the vowel and the consonants after it. SOUND-ALIKES: ring (wring), wring (ring), ringing (wringing) and morning (mourning); the dictionary gives each pair one pronunciation. Wiktionary lists ring and wring plainly, and morning and mourning with a note that some speakers once kept them apart. LEFT OUT: ceiling (it sounds like sealing, and the pair is not stored). SENTENCES are ours, name no person, and none repeats a sentence in another list of this site (checked on 14 October 2026). Spellings are American. Licence: own work

How it works

What do king, swing and spring share? The ending -ing, said with the short i of pin. Seventeen short words and twelve longer ones rhyme here, and twenty more end in a quieter -ing.

Read the full guide

The ing word family, list by list

List 1 puts one letter in front: king, ring, sing, wing, ding, ping, zing. List 2 puts two or three: bring, cling, fling, sling, sting, swing, thing, wring, spring, string. List 3 has longer words that still rhyme, such as anything, offspring and shoestring.

The quieter -ing of morning and singing

In morning, pudding and the rest of List 4 the stress falls earlier and the -ing goes by quickly; the American Heritage Dictionary still writes it with short i. List 5 adds -ing to a family word: singing, ringing, swinging. No letter doubles and none drops.

Some past forms change the vowel to a: sing, sang; ring, rang; spring, sprang. Bring becomes brought.
Cling, fling, sling, sting, swing, string and wring take u in the past: clung, flung, slung, stung, swung, strung, wrung.

Questions and answers

Can I print ing word family worksheets?

Yes. Lists 1 and 2, the seventeen one-syllable words, suit a first sheet. Any of the five lists prints as a word list, a test sheet, an ABC order sheet or a missing letters sheet.

Do ring and wring sound the same?

They do. The American Heritage Dictionary writes both as (rĭng), with no w sound in wring. To wring is to twist or squeeze. In a test, the sentence read with each word tells you which one to write.

Is something an ing family word?

It ends in -ing, but the dictionary marks no stress on its last syllable, so it does not rhyme with king the way plaything and anything do. Something and nothing are on List 4 with morning and evening.