Word.ws English Dictionary

fence sitter

fence sitter noun: one who takes neither side of an argument or controversy, but maintains a neutral position.

Noun

fence sitter (plural fence sitters)

  1. One who takes neither side of an argument or controversy, but maintains a neutral position.
  2. (potentially offensive) One who is bisexual, or who is uncertain about their sexual orientation.
    • What...? EW. You scored with the fence-sitter?2007, Adrian Tomine, Shortcomings (graphic novel), page 65
    Synonyms:
    bisexual, bi, switch hitter, fence-straddler

Synonyms of fence sitter

Forms of fence sitter

pluralfence sitters
alternative formfence-sitter
alternative formfencesitter

Origin of fence sitter

From fence + sitter, from the verb sit on the fence.

Questions about fence sitter

What does fence sitter mean?
Fence sitter means one who takes neither side of an argument or controversy, but maintains a neutral position.
What part of speech is fence sitter?
Fence sitter is a noun.
What is the plural of fence sitter?
The plural of fence sitter is fence sitters.

Words near fence sitter in the dictionary

  1. fence month
  2. fence months
  3. fence off
  4. fence post
  5. fence posts
  6. fence sitter
  7. fence sitters
  8. fence the tables
  9. fence time
  10. fence times
  11. fence viewer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fence sitter (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-NaomiAmethyst-fence sitter.wav.

Cite this entry: “fence sitter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fence_sitter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.