Bench

How to spell bench

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce bench

What does bench mean?

1. nounA long, usually backless seat for two or more people, often found outdoors or in public spaces.
2. nounA sturdy table at which a craftsperson or mechanic works.
3. verbTo withdraw a player from active play and keep them on the sidelines.

Bench in a sentence

• noun

  They sat on a wooden bench overlooking the river.

• noun

  The carpenter clamped the plank to his bench before sawing.

• verb

  The coach decided to bench the striker for the second half.

• noun

  The gardener painted the old bench a deep green.

• noun

  Every tool had its place on the tidy bench in the garage.

• verb

  Management chose to bench the injured guard until he recovered.

Where does bench come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word, descending from the Old English benc, meaning a long backless seat. It belongs to a wide Germanic family: compare modern German Bank and Dutch bank, all going back to a shared Germanic root that meant a raised surface or seat. Interestingly, that same Germanic root travelled into Italian as banca, the money-changer's table or counter, which is the ultimate source of the English word bank, so the humble seat and the financial institution are distant cousins. From the literal sense of a seat, English extended bench to mean the seat where judges sit, and then to the judges or court collectively, and later to the side line where reserve players wait. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable for over a thousand years, and because it is spelled exactly as it sounds it gives modern writers very little trouble.

How the word is built

• bench (from Old English benc, a long seat); single root, no affixes