site
Pluralsites
Often confused with cite and sight
Pluralsites
- 1A collection of related web pages reached through the internet; a website.
The company launched a new site to sell its products online.
I found the recipe on a popular cooking site.
UsageThings are on a site, often named by topic: a cooking site, a news site. Spelled site (not
incorrect: sight).Note
Here the word is a shortening: once the web is understood, a web site becomes simply a site. Doug Addison's Web Site Cookbook (2006) writes the full form as two words, yet speaks of a visitor arriving at your site from a referring site. Unlike the computer installation, it names the pages, not the machines.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- In the website sense, site is a contextual shortening of web site. en.wikipedia.org
- Doug Addison wrote Web Site Cookbook, first published in 2006, with Web Site written as two words. api.pageplace.de
- Addison's book describes a visitor arriving at your site and the server recording the referring site. en.wiktionary.org
- 2The place or position where something is fixed, located, or situated.
The monument's site overlooks the whole valley.
Engineers studied the site of the collapsed bridge for clues.
UsageUsually the site of something: the site of the accident. Not the same word as sight or cite.
Similarlocation, place, position, spot
Note
It reaches into the body too: the Victorian surgeon Henry Morris writes of "the site of its termination in the bladder," a placement in anatomy rather than geography.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Henry Morris was a surgeon active during the Victorian period. en.wikipedia.org
- Morris used the quoted wording about an anatomical location in the bladder. en.wiktionary.org
- 3A place chosen or prepared for a particular lasting use, such as building or settlement.
They picked a level site for the new factory.
After months of debate, the council chose a site on the edge of town for the new hospital.
UsageOften a site for a planned use: a site for the new hospital.
Similarlocation, plot, lot, spot
Note
Here the place is picked for a purpose: a site for a church, the site of a garden. The sense stretches easily to an organization spread over several places. Surratt, Ligon and Bird's The Multi-Site Church Revolution (2006) calls the first of a congregation's locations "our first site."
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The Multi-Site Church Revolution was written by Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon and Warren Bird and first published in 2006. zondervanacademic.com
Less common meanings
- 4To place or position a building or construction project in a particular location.
Planners chose to site the new hospital near the highway.
The factory was sited too close to the river and flooded.
UsageOften passive, with a place phrase: was sited near the river. Do not confuse it with cite or sight.
Similarlocate, situate, position, place
Note
A planner's and engineer's verb, often used in the passive: power stations "are sited closer to coalfields," as Trains Illustrated put it in 1961.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Trains Illustrated used "are sited closer to coalfields" about power stations in 1961. en.wiktionary.org
- 5A region of a protein, DNA, or RNA molecule where a specific chemical reaction or binding interaction takes place.
Enzymes bind to a specific site on the DNA strand.
The drug blocks the active site of the enzyme.
UsageUsually with a word naming what happens there: the active site, a binding site.
Note
The active site of an enzyme is where catalysis occurs, and a binding site is where another molecule attaches. On DNA or RNA, the same word marks a stretch of the molecule where a reaction or interaction takes place.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- An enzyme's active site is where catalysis occurs. ebi.ac.uk
- A binding site is where another molecule attaches. en.wikipedia.org
- Sites on DNA or RNA can be regions where molecular interactions occur. en.wikipedia.org
- 6A part of the body that has been operated on; the surgical wound and surrounding tissue.
After her knee operation, the nurse checked the site twice a day for any sign of infection.
A week after surgery, the site was still red and sore, so she called her doctor.
UsageOften the surgical site or the site of the operation.
Similarwound
- 7A computer installation, especially one connected to an intranet, internet service, or telecommunications network.
If the main servers fail, a backup computing site takes over the network within minutes.
Each branch site connects to headquarters through a secure line.
Similarinstallation, facility
Note
Computing borrowed the word for a physical installation before it meant pages on the web. Jack B. Rochester's Perspectives on Information Management (1982) speaks of each "data base site" holding a complete copy of the data. A site in this sense is hardware and connections, such as a location with a DS3 line, so keep it apart from the website meaning, where the site is content people visit.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Computing used 'site' for a physical installation before the web existed; this is supported by a 1971 network report. rfc-editor.org
- The website sense necessarily followed these early computing uses: CERN dates the web's invention to 1989. home.cern
- The cited work describes each 'data base site' containing a complete database copy, specifically in a fully redundant system. en.wiktionary.org
- 8A mathematical category equipped with a chosen Grothendieck topology.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Latin situs, meaning a position, place, or site, was formed from sinere ("to put, lay, or set down"). It reached Middle English as site by way of Anglo-Norman, which used the same form. Sitio and situs are doublets of site.