Word.ws English Dictionary

standing

/ˈstændɪŋ/

standing is the present participle and gerund of stand.

Adjective

standing (not comparable)

  1. Erect, not cut down.
  2. Performed from an erect position.
    • standing ovation
  3. Remaining in force or status; ongoing.
    • standing committee
  4. Stagnant; not moving or flowing.
    • standing water
  5. Not transitory; not liable to fade or vanish; lasting.
    • a standing colour
  6. Not movable; fixed.
    • a standing bed, distinguished from a trundle-bed
    • the standing rigging of a ship

Noun

standing (countable and uncountable, plural standings)

  1. (figuratively) Position or reputation in society or a profession.
    • He does not have much of a standing as a chemist.
    • The males constantly test their standing, looking to move up in the hierarchy.2017 March, Jennifer S. Holland, “For These Monkeys, It’s a Fight for Survival”, in National Geographic
    Synonyms:
    stock
  2. Duration.
    • a member of long standing
  3. The act of a person who stands, or a place where someone stands.
    • Tech[elles]. I heare them come, ſhall wee encounter them?
      Tam[burlaine]. Keep all your ſtandings, and not ſtir a foot,
      Myſelfe will bide the danger of the brunt.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
    • I sinke in deepe mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deepe waters, where the flouds ouerflow me.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 69:2
  4. The position of a team in a league or of a player in a list.
    • After their last win, their standing went up three places.
  5. (UK) Room in which to park a vehicle or vehicles
    • "There was no garage at Lathbury Road, but we had standing for two cars in front of the house."1992, P. D. James, The Children of Men, page 28
    • "The engineering crisis boiled down to roads, hard standing, and waste."2000, Bob Breen, Mission Accomplished, East Timor, page 149
  6. The right of a party to bring a legal action, based on the relationship between that party and the matter to which the action relates.
    • to have standing
    • He may be insulting, a miserable rotter and a fool, but unless he slanders or libels you, or damages your property, you do not have standing to sue him.
  7. (UK, obsolete, slang) The location on a street where a market trader habitually operates.
    Synonyms:
    pitch

Meaning of stand

Verb

stand (third-person singular simple present stands, present participle standing, simple past stood, past participle stood or (obsolete) standen or (nonstandard) stand)

  1. (copulative, intransitive) To support oneself on the feet in an erect position.
    • Here I stand, wondering what to do next.
  2. (intransitive) To rise to one’s feet; to stand up.
    • Stand up, walk to the refrigerator, and get your own snack.
  3. (copulative, intransitive) To remain motionless.
    • Do not leave your car standing in the road.
  4. (intransitive) To be placed in an upright or vertical orientation.
    • They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect.1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC
  5. (transitive) To place in an upright or standing position.
    • He stood the broom in a corner and took a break.
  6. (intransitive) To occupy or hold a place; to be set, placed, fixed, located, or situated.
    • Paris stands on the Seine.

See all 50 meanings of stand

Proper noun capitalized: Standing

Standing (plural Standings)

  1. A surname.

Synonyms of standing

Antonyms

Forms of standing

Noun
pluralstandings
Proper noun
pluralStandings

Origin of standing

From Middle English standynge, stondynge, standende, stondinde, standande, stondande, from Old English standende, stondende, from Proto-Germanic *standandz (“standing”), present participle of Proto-Germanic *standaną (“to stand”), equivalent to stand + -ing.

From Middle English standyng, stonding, stondung, from Old English *standung, equivalent to stand + -ing.

Words formed from standing

Phrases with standing

95 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with standing

Questions about standing

What does standing mean?
Standing means erect, not cut down.
What is standing the present participle and gerund of?
Standing is the present participle and gerund of stand.
What part of speech is standing?
Standing can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce standing?
Standing is pronounced /ˈstændɪŋ/.

Words near standing in the dictionary

  1. Standifer
  2. Standifers
  3. Standiford
  4. Standifords
  5. standin'
  6. standing
  7. standing a chance
  8. standing and delivering
  9. standing apart
  10. standing armies
  11. standing army

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: standing (page history and authors); Standing (page history and authors); stand (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-standing.ogg.

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