What part of speech is the word starting?

"Starting" can be a few different parts of speech depending on how it's used in a sentence:

* Gerund: When it acts as a noun, like "Starting the car was difficult."

* Present participle: When it modifies a noun or pronoun, like "The starting pitcher was amazing."

* Verb: When it's used as a verb itself, like "We're starting the project tomorrow."

So, to determine the part of speech, you need to look at the context of the sentence.