Stand

How to spell stand

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce stand

What does stand mean?

1. verbTo be in or move into an upright position on one's feet.
2. nounA small stall, booth, or rack used to display, hold, or sell something.
3. nounA firmly held opinion or attitude on an issue.

Stand in a sentence

• verb

  The lecture hall was so full that many people had to stand at the back.

• noun

  She bought fresh strawberries from a roadside fruit stand.

• noun

  The council took a firm stand against the proposed development.

• verb

  Please stand when the judge enters the courtroom.

• noun

  He placed his phone on the charging stand beside the bed.

• noun

  Her stand on the matter never wavered during the debate.

Where does stand come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a very old native English word, coming from the Old English verb 'standan', which simply meant to take or hold an upright position on one's feet. It traces back to a reconstructed Germanic root and ultimately to an ancient Indo-European base meaning to stand firm or be fixed in place, the same deep root that gave Latin 'stare' (to stand) and the everyday word 'stable'. Over many centuries the meaning branched widely, so that a 'stand' became not only the act of standing but also a fixed structure to hold something and a firmly held position in an argument. The same root survives inside familiar relatives such as 'understand' and 'withstand'. Because the word has stayed phonetically plain throughout its history, the spelling has remained refreshingly regular and matches its sound.

How the word is built

• stand (native English root meaning to be upright); related to the prefixed forms understand and withstand