Join free

sitting

English · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

sitting¹

  • /ˈsɪtɪŋ/

Rhymes with -ɪtɪŋ

Where it comes from

From Middle English sittyng, sittynge, equivalent to sit + -ing. Cognate with Dutch zitting (“a sitting, session”), German Sitzung (“a sitting, session”), Swedish sittning (“a sitting, session”).

noun sittings

  1. A period during which one is seated for a specific purpose. Due to the sheer volume of guests, we had to have two sittings for the meal.
  2. A seance or other session with a medium or fortuneteller. "It's not always easy to get him, and of course a small fee, a guinea I think, is usual, but if you wanted a sitting I could work it." "You think him genuine?" Atkinson shrugged his shoulders.
  3. A special seat allotted to a seat-holder, at church, etc.
  4. The part of the year in which judicial business is transacted.
  5. A legislative session (in the sense of meeting, and not period).
  6. The incubation of eggs by a bird.
  7. collective A clutch of eggs laid by a brooding bird. we have thirty-four chicks from eight sittings of eggs
  8. idiomatic An uninterrupted application to anything for a time; the period during which one continues at anything. I read it in two sittings.

sitting²

  • /ˈsɪtɪŋ/

Rhymes with -ɪtɪŋ

Where it comes from

From Middle English sittinge, sittynge, variant of sittinde, sittende, sittande, from Old English sittende (“sitting”), from Proto-Germanic *sitjandz (“sitting”), present participle of Proto-Germanic *sitjaną (“to sit”), equivalent to sit + -ing. Cognate with West Frisian sittend (“sitting”), Dutch zittend (“sitting”), German sitzend (“sitting”), Swedish sittande (“sitting”), Icelandic sitjandi (“sitting”).

verb

  1. gerund, participle, present present participle and gerund of sit

adjective

  1. not comparable Executed from a sitting position.
  2. not comparable Occupying a specific official or legal position; incumbent. Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.[…]Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising colossal
  3. not comparable Of a bird, incubating eggs.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: seated, posing, unmoving, nonmoving, session, seance, seating, seat, standing, staying, stay, full, serving, room, base, foundation

Translations

Every language

noun incubation of eggs; the clutch of eggs under a brooding bird

DeutschBrüten, Gelege

noun a period during which one is seated for a specific purpose

Españolsentada
日本語座
DeutschSitzung
Русскийприсест prisest

noun a legislative session

DeutschSitzung

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"sitting." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sitting. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

sitting. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sitting

Chicago

"sitting." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sitting.

BibTeX
@misc{sitting_2026,
  title = {sitting},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sitting},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}