situation
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Contents
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- scituation (hyper‐correct, obsolete)
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English situacioun, situacion, from Middle French situation, from Medieval Latin situatio (“position, situation”), from situare (“to locate, place”), from Latin situs (“a site”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
situation (plural situations)
- The way in which something is positioned vis-à-vis its surroundings.
- The Botanical Gardens are in a delightful situation on the river bank.
- 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows:
- ...he being naturally an underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of Badger's house exactly suited him and made him feel at home; while the Rat, who slept every night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on a breezy river, naturally felt the atmosphere still and oppressive.
- The place in which something is situated; a location.
- 1833, Thomas Hibbert and Robert Buist, The American Flower Garden Directory, page 142:
- [Hibíscus] speciòsus is the most splendid, and deserves a situation in every garden.
- 1833, Thomas Hibbert and Robert Buist, The American Flower Garden Directory, page 142:
- Position or status with regard to conditions and circumstances.
- The combination of circumstances at a given moment; a state of affairs.
- The United States is in an awkward situation with debt default looming.
- 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:
- Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.
- (Britain, dated) A position of employment; a post.
- 1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol:
- ‘Let me hear another sound from you,’ said Scrooge, ‘and you’ll keep your Christmas by losing your situation!
- 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, Penguin 2006, page 78:
- When he was nineteen, he suddenly left the 'Co-op' office, and got a situation in Nottingham.
- 1946, Vaughn Horton, Denver Darling, Milt Gabler, Choo Choo Ch'Boogie:
- You take a morning paper from the top of the stack
- And read the situations from the front to the back
- The only job that's open need a man with a knack
- So put it right back in the rack Jack.
- A difficult or unpleasant set of circumstances; a problem.
- Boss, we've got a situation here...
Synonyms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
position vis-à-vis surroundings
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location
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one's status with regard to circumstances
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state of affairs
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position of employment
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- Source for the definitions:
- Dictionary.com. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. [1] (accessed: March 10, 2007).
- situation in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- situation in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- situation at OneLook Dictionary Search
Anagrams[edit]
French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
situation f (plural situations)
- situation (all meanings)
Further reading[edit]
- “situation” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Interlingua[edit]
Noun[edit]
situation (plural situationes)
Swedish[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
situation c
Declension[edit]
| Declension of situation | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |||
| Indefinite | Definite | Indefinite | Definite | |
| Nominative | situation | situationen | situationer | situationerna |
| Genitive | situations | situationens | situationers | situationernas |
Synonyms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Medieval Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 4-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- British English
- English dated terms
- French words suffixed with -ation
- French 3-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French feminine nouns
- French countable nouns
- Interlingua lemmas
- Interlingua nouns
- Swedish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Swedish terms with audio links
- Swedish lemmas
- Swedish nouns
