Word.ws English Dictionary

place in the sun

place in the sun noun: a favorable position, characterized by comfort, success, wealth or general well-being.

Noun

place in the sun (plural places in the sun)

  1. (figuratively) A favorable position, characterized by comfort, success, wealth or general well-being.
    • that all conscious or seeming-conscious life is worthy of a place in the sun; that the hodman at his plough, the daisy in the field, and the lover with his lass, are alike a part of Nature's pageant1908, Laurie Magnus, English literature in the nineteenth century: an essay in criticism, page 32
    • And beyond the Christian orbit, other religious groups, at first Jews but then others as well, began to claim a place in the sun.1992, Mark A. Noll, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada, page 311
  2. (figuratively) Fame or recognition.
    • Jealousy is simply another way of demanding one's place in the sun – or under the domestic spotlight – a place in the center of the stage, as an exclusive object of consideration and attention.1972, Ben Barr Lindsey with Wainwright Evans, The companionate marriage, page 72
    • And I'm just waiting now, for my place in the sun / And I'm just waiting now, for peace to come2019, “Hollywood”, in Ghosteen, performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see place, sun.

Forms of place in the sun

pluralplaces in the sun

Origin of place in the sun

Possibly a calque of French place au soleil.

Questions about place in the sun

What does place in the sun mean?
Place in the sun means a favorable position, characterized by comfort, success, wealth or general well-being.
What part of speech is place in the sun?
Place in the sun is a noun.
What is the plural of place in the sun?
The plural of place in the sun is places in the sun.

Words near place in the sun in the dictionary

  1. place clause
  2. place clauses
  3. place holder
  4. place holders
  5. place importance on
  6. place in the sun
  7. place kick
  8. place kicks
  9. place mat
  10. place mats
  11. place money

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: place in the sun (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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