- present participle of reward.
rewarding
Americanadjective
-
affording satisfaction, valuable experience, or the like; worthwhile.
-
affording financial or material gain; profitable.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of rewarding
Explanation
Things that satisfy you or make you happy are rewarding. Even if you love to learn, the most rewarding part of going to school for many of us is making good friends. The word reward is obvious when you look at the adjective rewarding, and rewarding things do give you a kind of reward. Rather than cash for finding a neighbor's lost cat, though, the reward you get from something rewarding is pleasure or satisfaction. Watching a great movie is rewarding, and so is doing something kind for another person. You might even get lucky and have a rewarding career, or even a rewarding life.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Instead of rewarding their business, StubHub sold them World Cup tickets that they either could not provide or on speculation, only to be stranded, in many cases, at the stadium gates without any recourse.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 9, 2026
Filippenko added, "To see a clear effect of Einstein's general theory of relativity is always exciting, but seeing it for the first time in a supernova is especially rewarding."
From Science Daily • Jul. 6, 2026
The book depicts Mr. Stein as a Boss Tweed-style figure who ran the lifeguarding program as a personal fiefdom, rewarding those loyal to him with plum assignments and punishing those who sought system reform.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 24, 2026
Founded in 2018, Cred came up with a simple business model centred on rewarding people for paying their credit card bills on time.
From BBC • Jun. 23, 2026
It has been my experience that rewarding and heartbreaking often go hand in hand.
From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
