Sit

How to spell sit

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce sit

What does sit mean?

1. verbTo rest with the body supported on the buttocks, with the upper body upright.

Sit in a sentence

• Please sit down while the doctor reviews your notes.

• The cat likes to sit on the warm windowsill all afternoon.

Where does sit come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word, descending from the Old English verb sittan, which meant simply 'to be seated' or 'to occupy a seat'. It belongs to a large Germanic family, with close cousins in Old Norse sitja, Dutch zitten and German sitzen, all going back to a reconstructed Proto-Germanic root sitjan. Further back still it traces to an ancient Indo-European root sed, meaning 'to sit', the very same root that, through Latin, gave English words such as 'session', 'sediment' and 'reside'. The spelling has stayed short and steady for well over a thousand years, and because it is so common and so phonetic, it gives modern writers almost no trouble. Its irregular past tense 'sat' is itself a relic of the old Germanic vowel changes that marked tense in these early verbs.

How the word is built

• sit (from Old English sittan, to be seated)