Meaning & use
dwelling on
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“dwelling on” is a form of “dwell on”.
Meaning
verbintransitive
spending a lot of time thinking or talking about something, especially something unpleasant or worrying.
Grammar: Used as a verb in the -ing form, often after 'keep' or 'stop'. It takes the preposition 'on': dwelling on the past.
Patterns
- dwelling on something
- keep dwelling on something
- stop dwelling on something
She keeps dwelling on her mistakes instead of moving forward.
He spent the whole evening dwelling on what he should have said in the meeting.
Try not to dwell on the negative comments; focus on the positive feedback.
Word forms
| base form | dwell on |
|---|---|
| third person singular | dwells on |
| past tense | dwelled on |
| past participle | dwelled on |
| present participle | dwelling on |
Common combinations
- keep dwelling on
- He keeps dwelling on his past failures.
- stop dwelling on
- You need to stop dwelling on things you can't change.
- dwell on the past
- It's not healthy to dwell on the past.
- dwell on a mistake
- She dwells on every small mistake she makes.
Synonyms and how they differ
- obsess over
- Stronger and suggests you cannot stop thinking about something, often in an unhealthy way.
- brood on
- More literary and suggests a moody, silent focus on unhappy thoughts.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: dwelling on or dwelling?
dwelling on vs dwelling
As a noun, 'dwelling' means a house or place to live. 'Dwelling on' is a verb phrase meaning thinking too much about something.
Practice
Choose the correct sentence.
Choose one answer.
The phrasal verb 'dwell on' takes the preposition 'on'. The other prepositions do not fit this meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dwelling on”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.