Word.ws English Dictionary

seat

/siːt/UK/ˈseɪæt/

seat noun: something to be sat upon.

seat: something to be sat upon
Image: The Car Spy, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

seat (plural seats)

  1. Something to be sat upon.
    • Several pressmen have nearly lost their lives, to say nothing of the seats of their trousers, from these creatures.1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed
    • I love these new biker pants I bought! There's padding in the seat to protect my rear end.2006 July 20, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic)
    1. A place in which to sit.
      • There are two hundred seats in this classroom.
      • The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;[…]. Our table in the dining-room became again the abode of scintillating wit and caustic repartee, Farrar bracing up to his old standard, and the demand...1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
    2. The horizontal portion of a chair or other furniture designed for sitting.
      • He sat on the arm of the chair rather than the seat, which always annoyed his mother.
      • the seat of a saddle
    3. A piece of furniture made for sitting, such as a chair, stool, or bench; any improvised place for sitting.
      • She pulled the seat from under the table to allow him to sit down.
    4. (slang) An ejection seat.
      • Hey, fighter boy, our radar's putting out enough energy to launch your seat from this distance!
    5. The part of an object or individual (usually the buttocks) directly involved in sitting.
      • Instead of saying "sit down", she said "place your seat on this chair".
    6. The part of a piece of clothing (usually pants or trousers) covering the buttocks.
      • The seat of these trousers is almost worn through.
    7. A part or surface on which another part or surface rests.
      • The seat of the valve had become corroded.
  2. (figuratively) A membership in an organization, particularly a representative body.
    • Our neighbor has a seat at the stock exchange and in congress.
  3. The location of a governing body.
    • Washington D.C. is the seat of the U.S. government.
    • The K'o-tzu-lo-su Kirghiz chou bordered on the K'o-shih chuan-ch'ü and its seat at A-t'u-shih was only twenty-five kilometers from K'o-shih shih.1963, Henry G. Schwarz, Policies and Administration of Minority Areas in Northwest China and Inner Mongolia, 1949-1959, volume 2, →OCLC, page 338
  4. (certain Commonwealth countries) An electoral district, especially for a national legislature.
  5. A temporary residence, such as a country home or a hunting lodge.
    • A man of fortune, who lives in London, may, in plays, operas, routs, assemblies, French cookery, French sauces, and French wines, spend as much yearly, as he could do, were he to live in the most hospitable manner at his seat in the country.1806, William Cobbett, The Parliamentary History of England
  6. The place occupied by anything, or where any person, thing or quality is situated or resides; a site.
    • Where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 2:13
    • He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat committeth himself to prison.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Building”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC
  7. (England, Wales) One of a series of departmental placements given to a trainee solicitor as part of their training contract.
  8. (historical) Any of several autonomous regions in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary.
  9. The starting point of a fire.
  10. Posture, or way of sitting, on horseback.
    • She had so good a seat and hand she might be trusted with any mount.1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter III, in Daniel Deronda, volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC
    • George was a perfect picture on horseback; he had a light, firm seat, and seemed as if he were a part of his horse, and was only happy when away in the saddle for hours together, mustering cattle or tracking a missing horse.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 85

Verb

seat (third-person singular simple present seats, present participle seating, simple past and past participle seated)

  1. (transitive) To put an object into a place where it will rest; to fix; to set firm.
    • Be sure to seat the gasket properly before attaching the cover.
    • From their foundations, loosening to and fro, / They plucked the seated hills.1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
  2. (transitive) To provide with a place to sit.
    • This classroom seats two hundred students.
    • The waiter seated us and asked what we would like to drink.
  3. (transitive) To request or direct one or more persons to sit.
    • Please seat the audience after the anthem and then introduce the first speaker.
  4. (transitive, legislature) To recognize the standing of a person or persons by providing them with one or more seats which would allow them to participate fully in a meeting or session.
    • Only half the delegates from the state were seated at the convention because the state held its primary too early.
    • You have to be a member to be seated at the meeting. Guests are welcome to sit in the visitors section.
  5. (transitive) To assign the seats of.
    • to seat a church
  6. (transitive) To cause to occupy a post, site, or situation; to station; to establish; to fix; to settle.
    • This valve isn't seating properly.
    • Thus high […] is King Richard seated.c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  7. (intransitive, obsolete) To rest; to lie down.
    • The folds, where sheepe at night doe seat.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  8. To settle; to plant with inhabitants.
    • to seat a country
    • The Plantations, for the most Part, are high and pleasantly seated1747, William Stith, The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia
  9. (transitive) To put a seat or bottom in.
    • to seat a chair

Noun (2) capitalized: SEAT

SEAT (plural SEATs)

  1. (US, abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of single-engine air tanker.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: SEAT

SEAT

  1. Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo, a Spanish automobile manufacturer.

Noun (3) capitalized: SEAT

SEAT (plural SEATs)

  1. An automobile from Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Seat

Seat (plural Seats)

  1. A surname.

seat meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

seat in Hindi

piece of furniture
आसन āsan
place in which to sit
आसन āsan, आसनी āsnī
location of a governing body
सिंहासन sĩhāsan

seat in Tamil

place in which to sit
இருக்கை irukkai
to provide places to sit
உட்கார்த்து uṭkārttu

seat in Marathi

आसन

seat in Urdu

place in which to sit
سیٹ sīṭ, نشست niśist
electoral district
حلقہ halqa, حَلْقَہ اِنْتِخاب halqa intixāb
More languagesFewer languages
seat in Bengali
আসন aśon
seat in Telugu
ఆసనము āsanamu
seat in Malayalam
സീറ്റ്
seat in Kannada
ಆಸನ
seat in Punjabi
ਸੀਟ
seat in Odia
ଆସନ
seat in Sanskrit
आसन āsana, सदस् sadas
seat in Nepali
सिट, सीट, आसन
seat in Arabic
مَقْعَد maqʕad, مَقْعَدَة maqʕada, وِثَاب wiṯāb
seat in Malay
tempat duduk
seat in Persian
جا jâ
seat in Thai
ที่นั่ง tîi-nâng
seat in Vietnamese
ghế
seat in Myanmar
ထိုင်ခုံ htuinghkum

Examples of seat in a sentence

  • […] Grand Union proposes making a seat part of the price of a ticket, with 50% refunds for those travelling for longer than 30 minutes unable to obtain a seat.2019 October, “South Wales open access bid”, in Modern Railways, page 15:
  • Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness.2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
  • a seat of plenty, content, and tranquillity1856 February, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and...
  • Many such experiments taught me that the real seat of taste was not the tongue but the mind.1927–1929, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, chapter XVII, in The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in...

All 40 example sentences with seat

Forms of seat

Noun
pluralseats
pluralSEATs
Verb
third-person singular presentseats
present participleseating
past participleseated
pastseated
Proper noun
pluralSeats

Past tense of seat: seated

Plural of seat: seats

Origin of seat

From Middle English sete, from Old English sǣte, possibly from (or simply cognate with) Old Norse sæti (“seat”), both from Proto-Germanic *sētiją (“seat”), from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”); compare Old English set (“seat”). Noun sense 2 (“location or site”) is probably derived from Old English sǣte (“house”), which is related to Old High German sāza (“sedan, seat, domicile”). Cognates * Middle Dutch gesaete * Old High German gisazi (modern German Gesäß)

Perhaps a variant of Sait.

Words formed from seat

Phrases with seat

102 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with seat

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about seat

What does seat mean?
Seat means something to be sat upon.
What is seat in Hindi?
Seat in Hindi is आसन (āsan), आसनी (āsnī), सिंहासन (sĩhāsan). See Seat meaning in Hindi.
How do you use seat in a sentence?
[…] Grand Union proposes making a seat part of the price of a ticket, with 50% refunds for those travelling for longer than 30 minutes unable to obtain a seat.
What part of speech is seat?
Seat can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce seat?
Seat is pronounced /siːt/.
What is the plural of seat?
The plural of seat is seats.

Words near seat in the dictionary

  1. seasure
  2. seasures
  3. seaswept
  4. seaswine
  5. seaswines
  6. seat
  7. seat at the table
  8. seat back
  9. seat backs
  10. seat belt
  11. seat belt sign

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: seat (page history and authors); SEAT (page history and authors); Seat (page history and authors); seat (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); seat (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); seat (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); seat (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); seat (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); seat (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-seat.ogg.

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