DictionaryAI

seat

SEET/siːt/

Pluralseats

Verbseats, seating, seated

24 meanings of seat

Practice

  1. 1
    place to sitnouncountable
    A place for one person to sit, especially one in a theater, vehicle, stadium, or hall that can be taken, saved, or booked.

    She offered her seat to the elderly passenger.

    Every seat in the theater had sold out by noon.

    UsageCommon phrases: take a seat (sit down), save someone a seat, book a seat.

    Similarplace

  2. 2
    role as membernounfigurativelycountable
    A position of membership in an organization, especially a representative body.

    She won a seat on the board after years of loyal service.

    The investor demanded two seats on the board of directors.

    UsageA seat on a board or committee, but usually a seat in a parliament or the Senate.

    Similarplace, position, post

  3. 3
    nouncountable
    Furniture designed to be sat on, such as a chair, bench, or stool, or any makeshift place where a person can sit.

    The old wooden seat by the fire was everyone's favorite spot.

    They dragged a few seats out onto the porch for the party.

  4. 4
    capitalnouncountable
    The place where a governing body is based.

    For centuries the ancient city served as the seat of the empire.

    The capital remains the seat of the federal government.

    UsageUsually the seat of something: the seat of government, the seat of the empire.

    Similarcenter, capital, headquarters, base

  5. 5
    voting districtnouncountable
    An electoral district, especially one that returns a member to a national legislature.

    She held the rural seat for over twenty years before retiring.

    The opposition picked up several seats in the suburbs.

    UsageParties win, hold or lose a seat; a seat changes hands when another party wins it.

    Similarconstituency, district

    Note

    Electoral talk in certain Commonwealth countries uses one word for both the place and the prize. A party wins, holds or loses a seat, meaning the district itself. The member who wins it then also holds a seat in the membership sense. So when a party "picked up seats in the suburbs", read it as districts on the map, not chairs in the chamber.

  6. 6
    sitting surfacenouncountable
    The horizontal part of a chair or other furniture that a person actually sits on.

    The chair's seat was woven from rushes in the traditional way.

    Thin cushions softened the hard wooden seats of the pews.

    Similarbottom

  7. 7
    have room forverbtransitive
    To provide a person or group with a place to sit.

    The new auditorium can seat over a thousand people.

    Organizers set up folding chairs on the lawn to seat the overflow crowd.

    UsageWith a room, table or vehicle as subject, it gives how many fit: the hall seats 500.

    Similaraccommodate, hold, sit, take

    Note

    The passive be seated is the formal counterpart of sitting down, and the Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus (1741) already describe guests who were "no sooner seated" than they began arguing.

  8. 8
    place peopleverbtransitive
    To show or direct people to a place to sit, or decide where each person in a group will sit.

    The clerk seated the jurors and reminded them not to talk.

    Ushers will seat the audience promptly when the doors open.

    UsageCommon in the passive: be seated at a table, as in the sign Please wait to be seated.

  9. 9
    sitenouncountable
    The place occupied by something, or where a person, thing, or quality is situated; a site.

    For centuries, the brain has been recognized as the seat of conscious thought.

    The seat of the infection was traced to a small cut on her foot.

    UsageUsually the seat of something: the seat of thought, the seat of the pain.

    Similarsite, center, location, focus

    Note

    The widest of the place senses, and an old one. The King James Bible of 1611 speaks of "Satan's seat". Bacon in 1625 warns that whoever builds a fair house "upon an ill seat" imprisons himself, and there the word means the very ground a building stands on.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of seat apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Middle English sete comes from Old English sǣte, which was possibly borrowed from Old Norse sæti ("seat") or is simply related to it; both trace back to Proto-Germanic *sētiją and the Proto-Indo-European root *sed- ("to sit"). The sense "location or site" probably comes from Old English sǣte in the meaning "house," a relative of Old High German sāza ("seat, domicile").