Word.ws English Dictionary

empty chair

empty chair noun: a chair which is used to personify the client's object of conflict.

Noun

empty chair (plural empty chairs)

  1. (psychotherapy) A chair which is used to personify the client's object of conflict
  2. A podium or chair left empty to highlight the absence of someone from a debate.
    • "Megyn Kelly and The Donald's empty chair made Thursday’s debate the most absurd moment of the election cycle—and that's really saying something!"2016, Jon Kelly, “Inside the Trump-less Fox News Debate: V.F. Contributors Offer Analysis in Real-Time”, in Vanity Fair
  3. A position held by someone who is absent or otherwise ineffectual.

Verb

empty chair (third-person singular simple present empty chairs, present participle empty chairing, simple past and past participle empty chaired)

  1. (transitive, debating) To draw attention to (a person who is absent from a debate) by providing an empty podium or chair which they would have occupied.
    • "The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky have said they will “empty chair” any party leaders who refuse to take part in their revised proposals for TV election debates."2015, John Plunkett, TV debates: broadcasters will 'empty chair' leaders who refuse to take part The Guardian
    • "When later asked if Ms May would be “empty chaired”, a spokesperson also refused to rule out the possibility, saying the full plans would be announced in early May."2017, May Bullman, “TV broadcasters considering 'empty chair' for Theresa May after she refuses to take part in leaders' debate”, in The Independent

Forms of empty chair

Noun
pluralempty chairs
Verb
third-person singular presentempty chairs
present participleempty chairing
past participleempty chaired
pastempty chaired

Questions about empty chair

What does empty chair mean?
Empty chair means a chair which is used to personify the client's object of conflict.
What part of speech is empty chair?
Empty chair can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of empty chair?
The plural of empty chair is empty chairs.

Words near empty chair in the dictionary

  1. empty calorie
  2. empty calories
  3. empty cans make the most noise
  4. empty canvas
  5. empty canvases
  6. empty chair
  7. empty chairs
  8. empty coaching stock
  9. empty constructor
  10. empty constructors
  11. empty function

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: empty chair (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “empty chair.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/empty_chair. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.