Word.ws English Dictionary

sett

/sɛt/

sett noun: the system of tunnels that is the home of a badger. Also the obsolete form of set.

sett: the system of tunnels that is the home of a badger
Image: Smuconlaw, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

sett (plural setts)

  1. The system of tunnels that is the home of a badger.
    • But it is quite sad to reflect that some 4,500 badger setts were already wiped out using poisoned gas between 1975 and 1982. When you consider that an average sett can contain up to 15 animals, parents and cubs, it is easy to imagine the scale of suffering involved.2006, David Kavanagh, A Country Pillow Book, page 69
    Synonyms:
    cete
  2. The pattern of distinctive threads and yarns that make up the plaid of a Scottish tartan.
    • The Vestiarium gave setts for Lowland houses as well as Highland clans[…]and many families within the clans have their own setts to add to the clan tartans.[…]The clans and families are branching out with Dress and Hunting tartans, and the same sett—any sett—may be produced in dark "modern,"...2012, J. Charles Thompson, “Introduction”, in James Grant, Scottish Tartans in Full Color
  3. The number of warp ends per inch in the cloth.
    • To achieve a balanced weave, the sett must be a little tighter than it would be for a twill.2026, Malynda Allen, “Flights of Fancy”, in Handwoven, volume XLVII, number 1, page 45
    Synonyms:
    sley
  4. (England) The number of reeds or splits per inch – one half the number of ends per inch.
  5. A small, square-cut piece of quarried stone used for paving and edging.
    • Very durable grey granite has been quarried near Aberdeen for more than 300 years, and blocked and dressed paving "setts," kerb and building stones, and monumental and other ornamental work of granite have long been exported from the district to all parts of the world.1911, “Aberdeen”, in Hugh Chisholm, editor, The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information, 11th edition, volume I, Cambridge, Mass.; New York, N.Y....
    • Three horses trotted abreast, with the clatter of hoofs on the granite setts, and the yellow, uproarious machine jolted violently behind them, […]1912, Joseph Conrad, chapter 7, in A Personal Record, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Bros. Publishers, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    Belgian block
  6. A mine or set of mines on lease.
    • […] let the dialler, with the same instrument he uses underground, run a north and south line on the surface, in any convenient part of the sett, marking the extremities by well-fixed points, […]1857, The Mining Magazine, page 128
  7. A collection of pumps in a mine.
    • After a delay of about three months, the 24 inches sett of pumps was ready for work, and sinking was resumed with one sett of pumps 18 inches in diameter in No. 1 pit, and one sett 24 inches in diameter in No. 2 pit; […]1898, The Mining Engineer, Great Britain: Institution of Mining Engineers, page 196

Verb

sett

  1. (transitive) To determine the ends per inch of the warp.
    • In my personal weaving and for these samples, I tend to sett Tencel a bit more tightly than the charts recommend. I prefer the hand of the fabric that results and don't find it to be stiff.2026, Samantha Haring, “A Pair of New Tencels for Effortless Weaving”, in Handwoven, volume XLVII, number 1, page 73

Also used as

sett is also the obsolete form of set.

sett is also the obsolete spelling of set.

Synonyms of sett

Forms of sett

pluralsetts
alternative formset

Origin of sett

A variant of set to distinguish various technical senses.

Words formed from sett

Words that rhyme with sett

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sett

What does sett mean?
Sett means the system of tunnels that is the home of a badger.
What part of speech is sett?
Sett can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce sett?
Sett is pronounced /sɛt/.
What is the plural of sett?
The plural of sett is setts.

Words near sett in the dictionary

  1. Setser
  2. Setsers
  3. Setsubun
  4. Setsuko
  5. Setswana
  6. sett
  7. settability
  8. settable
  9. Sette
  10. setted
  11. settedst

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sett (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-set.ogg.

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