sit
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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3 characters
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English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "sit", 3-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "sit" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "sit" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
sit is aEnglishverb. It means: To be in a position in which the upper body is upright and supported by the buttocks. Pronounced /sɪt/. It ranks #1,355 in English word frequency. Often confused with so and SS.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sit |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /sɪt/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #1,355 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for sit is 3 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /sɪt/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,355 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 17 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for sit in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "so", "SS", "SP", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sed- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *sédyeti Proto-Germanic *sitjaną Proto-West Germanic *sittjan Old English sittan Middle English sitten English sit From Middle English sitten, from Old English sittan, f… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is sit, spelled S-I-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To be in a position in which the upper body is upright and supported by the buttocks.
- 2To move oneself into such a position.
- 3To occupy a given position.
- 4To remain in a state of repose; to rest; to abide; to rest in any position or condition.
- 5To be a member of a deliberative body.
- 6Of a legislative or, especially, a judicial body such as a court, to be in session.
- 7To lie, rest, or bear; to press or weigh.
- 8To be adjusted; to fit.
- 9To be accepted or acceptable; to work.
- 10To cause to be seated or in a sitting posture; to furnish a seat to.
- 11To accommodate in seats; to seat.
- 12To babysit.
- 13To take, to undergo or complete (an examination or test).
- 14To cover and warm eggs for hatching, as a fowl; to brood; to incubate.
- 15To take a position for the purpose of having some artistic representation of oneself made, such as a picture or a bust.
- 16To have position, as at the point blown from; to hold a relative position; to have direction.
- 17To keep one's seat when faced with (a blow, attack); to endure, to put up with.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sed- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *sédyeti Proto-Germanic *sitjaną Proto-West Germanic *sittjan Old English sittan Middle English sitten English sit From Middle English sitten, from Old English sittan, from Proto-West Germanic *sittjan, from Proto-Germanic *sitjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“sit”). Cognates Cognate with West Frisian sitte, Low German sitten, Dutch zitten, German sitzen, Swedish sitta, Norwegian Bokmål sitte, Norwegian Nynorsk sitja; and with Irish suigh, Latin sedeo, Russian сиде́ть (sidétʹ).
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #1,355 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter S in our English index: