bleaching: meaning, definition, pronunciation and examples

Not always. In laundry, it's a desired cleaning action. In linguistics, it's a neutral, descriptive term for language change. In ecology (coral bleaching), it's decidedly negative.

'Bleaching' typically involves an active agent (chemical, sun). 'Fading' is often a more passive loss of colour over time. 'Whitening' is the result, which can be achieved by bleaching but also by other means like adding a white pigment.

Yes. As a noun: 'The bleaching of the coral was severe.' (gerund/process). As a verb: 'She bleached her hair.' The form 'bleaching' is the present participle/gerund.

It's a process in historical linguistics where a word loses parts of its original, concrete meaning as it becomes more grammatical. For example, the verb 'go' in 'be going to' lost its sense of physical movement to become a future tense marker.

The process of removing colour from something, typically using chemicals or sunlight.

Bleaching is usually neutral to technical. common in domestic, industrial, and academic linguistics contexts. in register.

Bleaching: in British English it is pronounced /ˈbliːtʃɪŋ/, and in American English it is pronounced /ˈbliːtʃɪŋ/. Tap the audio buttons above to hear it.