muriendo

Muriendo is the gerund of the Spanish verb morir, meaning dying. It denotes the ongoing act or state of dying and is commonly used with a form of estar to express progressive aspect, as in estoy muriendo or la planta está muriendo. It also appears with the reflexive form morirse to indicate the process more vividly, as in se está muriendo or se está muriendo de risa, depending on the context.

Etymology and form: Morir derives from Latin mori, and muriendo is the present participle/gerund form used to express ongoing action in Spanish. It is not the past participle; muerto is the past participle. The gerund is used in combination with auxiliary verbs or in verbless phrases to convey immediacy or duration, and it can carry figurative meanings beyond literal death, such as extreme hunger or humor.

Usage notes: Muriendo appears in literal contexts—El personaje está muriendo en la escena (The character is dying in the scene)—and in figurative expressions like estoy muriendo de hambre (I’m starving) or se está muriendo de risa (he/she is dying of laughter). The reflexive form morirse yields muriéndose when used as a present participle, and is common for emphasizing the ongoing nature of the event, as in se está muriéndose.

See also: The verb morir, its conjugation, and related terms such as muerte and moribundo. Muriendo is a versatile form in narrative and descriptive Spanish, signaling an ongoing process of dying or serving in figurative constructions.