Settle

How to spell settle

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce settle

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does settle mean?

1. verbTo resolve something, bring it to rest, or make a permanent home somewhere.

Settle in a sentence

• The lawyers worked late to settle the dispute before the trial began.

• After years of travelling they decided to settle in a quiet coastal town.

Where does settle come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Settle goes back to the Old English verb setlan, meaning 'to place', 'to seat', or 'to bring to rest', which was formed directly from the noun setl, an old word for a seat or a place to sit. That noun belongs to the same broad Germanic family that gave English the word 'seat' and even the 'sit' in everyday use, all tracing back to a root meaning to be seated or to come to a fixed position. Over the centuries the idea of bringing something to a fixed resting place broadened in many directions: people came to settle in a new region, dust came to settle on a surface, arguments and debts came to be settled, and the mind came to settle down. The doubled t and the unstressed -le ending are the only real spelling points; the second syllable swallows its vowel, which is why writers sometimes hesitate over the ending. The much older meaning survives in the noun settle, a long wooden bench with a high back, literally a fixed place to sit.

How the word is built

• settl- (from Old English setl: a seat)
• -e