Word.ws English Dictionary

standing room only

standing room only phrase: of an event, venue, or public transportation, so full or so well attended that all the seats are occupied and the only available or remaining space is for people to stand.

Phrase

standing room only

  1. Of an event, venue, or public transportation, so full or so well attended that all the seats are occupied and the only available or remaining space is for people to stand.
    • Ever since Stourbridge-born Bellingham became huge news, fans turn out to cheer the local hero on the big screen inside the clubhouse whenever the Three Lions - who play a friendly with Australia on Friday followed by a Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy next Tuesday - are in action.
      "It was...2023 October 12, Neil Johnston, “FA Cup: Why Stourbridge is fearing for its future”, in BBC Sport
    • Here [at Grantham], the train has three minutes to reverse, during which time it is suddenly packed out with shoppers heading to Nottingham. It's standing room only for those who arrive last.2024 April 17, “Rural railways: do they deliver?”, in RAIL, number 1007, page 57
    Synonyms:
    SRO

Synonyms of standing room only

Questions about standing room only

What does standing room only mean?
Standing room only means of an event, venue, or public transportation, so full or so well attended that all the seats are occupied and the only available or remaining space is for people to stand.
What part of speech is standing room only?
Standing room only is a phrase.

Words near standing room only in the dictionary

  1. standing rib
  2. standing ribs
  3. standing rigging
  4. standing riggings
  5. standing room
  6. standing room only
  7. standing rule
  8. standing rules
  9. standing Sam
  10. standing seam
  11. standing seams

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: standing room only (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:

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