Positioning

How to spell positioning

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce positioning

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does positioning mean?

1. nounThe act of placing or arranging someone or something in a particular spot or stance.
2. nounThe way a brand, product, or person is presented to occupy a distinct place in the market or in people's minds.

Positioning in a sentence

• Careful positioning of the speakers improved the sound in the room.

• The agency reviewed the brand positioning before launching the new range.

• The photographer spent ten minutes positioning the lights before the shoot.

• Premium positioning let the company charge more than its rivals.

Where does positioning come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb ponere, meaning 'to put' or 'to place', whose past participle was positus. From positus came the Late Latin noun positio, meaning 'a placing' or 'a setting down', which passed through Old French as posicion before settling into English as 'position' during the late 1300s. The verb 'to position' (to put something in a particular place) grew from the noun, and 'positioning' is simply its gerund and present-participle form, naming the ongoing act of placing or arranging. The same Latin root sits inside a large family of everyday words such as 'deposit', 'compose', 'oppose' and 'expose', all of which involve putting something somewhere. For spellers the trap is the quiet middle: the unstressed second syllable can blur, and the 'ti' that sounds like 'sh' tempts some writers toward the wrong ending, but the steady posit + ion + ing structure keeps it predictable.

How the word is built

• posit- (from Latin ponere/positus: to place, set)
• -ion (noun of action)
• -ing (gerund/present participle suffix)