🕊️ Death 🏈 Throwing the ball 🏈 Throwing plays ⏳ Brief or short 💨 Not detailed 🕰️ End of period ✅ Satisfactory 🌠 Moving by 🚗 Overtaking 🎓 Success in test ✨ Very

passing

2 9.9

To an unusually great degree

adverb
/ˈpæsɪŋ/

Archaic

: sumamente

She was passing wise for her young age, astonishing her teachers.

Examples

His speech was passing strange, full of riddles and half-truths.
The landscape was passing fair and left the travelers awestruck.
The sunset was passing beautiful.
The performance was passing remarkable for a community theater.
His speech was passing strange, full of riddles and half-truths.
The landscape was passing fair and left the travelers awestruck.
The performance was passing remarkable for a community theater.

Synonyms

surpassingly

vspassing

1 8.4

To a very high degree

is archaic and literary, more formal or poetic in tone

passingly

vspassing

Archaic

1 9.9

To a very great degree

is an archaic literary intensifier used in elevated written style

Antonyms

ordinary

681 1.0

Normal and not special or unusual

mediocre

94 4.8

Only average in quality and not very good

Idioms

in passing

25 3.8

While mentioning something briefly without giving it much attention

Compounds

passing game

Jargon

25 3.6

A series of plays in American football that move the ball by throwing to teammates

passing play

Specialized

7 4.4

A play in American football where a player throws the ball forward to a teammate

passing comment

1 3.3

A short casual remark that someone says without thinking

husband's passing

1 5.6

The death of a woman's husband

buck-passing

1 7.1

Act of putting blame on others to avoid doing a job you should do

passing shot

Specialized

1 4.6

A tennis hit that goes past an opponent at the net

passing note

Specialized

1 7.2

A small note between two main notes in a melody that connects them smoothly

passing tone

Specialized

1 7.8

A note played between two main notes to make the tune move smoothly

buck-passing culture

7.9

A workplace culture where people avoid responsibility by blaming others

passing beam headlamp

5.6

A light on a car that makes a low beam to light the road without hurting other drivers' eyes

passing water

8.2

To let out urine from the body

How Intense

exceedingly

54 4.6

passing

Archaic

2 9.9

somewhat

811 2.0

Surface Forms

passing positive

Morphology

passing = pass (semi-transparent) = pass + ing

Derived from 'pass' plus '-ing' and used adverbially as an intensifier ('exceedingly'), but this literary/archaic use is not fully productive and may be unfamiliar to learners.

Etymology

Passing comes from pass, meaning 'to go beyond' or 'surpass'. A helpful way to remember the old use of passing as 'very' is to think of it as 'going beyond the usual', so passing strange meant 'more than strange'.