Sitcom

How to spell sitcom

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sitcom

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sitcom mean?

1. nounA comedy series featuring a recurring set of characters in a fixed setting, with a humorous storyline in each episode.

Sitcom in a sentence

• The network ordered a second season of the popular sitcom.

• She writes scripts for a workplace sitcom set in a small office.

Where does sitcom come from?

Language of origin: Other

Sitcom is a twentieth-century blend that compresses the phrase situation comedy into a single brisk word. The longer term situation comedy described a humorous show built around a fixed setting and a recurring cast who face fresh comic predicaments in each episode; situation here carries its ordinary sense of a set of circumstances, while comedy traces back through Old French and Latin to the Greek komoidia, a word for a light, amusing performance. The clipped form sitcom arose in the United States during the radio and early television era of the 1950s, when the genre became a programming staple. Like other broadcasting coinages of that period (think of words such as telecast), it stitched together the first syllable of each component, which is exactly why the spelling keeps the single t of sit before the c of com. Remembering that it is literally sit plus com guards against the tempting but wrong doubled letters.

How the word is built

• blend of sit(uation)
• com(edy)