stance
/stæns/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.05 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
noun
A place where a fair or market is held; a location where a street trader can carry on business.
verb
To place, to position, to station; (specifically) to put (cattle) into an enclosure or pen in preparation for sale.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "The fencer’s stance showed he was ready to begin."
- "Stance and gait are best examined with the patient barefoot; meaningful findings can be obtained only if the patient has enough room to walk in. The testing of stance and gait often provides important clues to the type of disease process that is present."
- "Peter Gammons told me Yaz switched his stance every year, but Cal [Ripken Jr.]'s brother Billy [Ripken] said Cal switched his stance midseason, midgame, even mid-at-bat. […] The most beloved and memorable of the Ripken stances was "the Violin." Cal would bend his knees and slightly open his stance to face the pitcher. He would rest the bat on his shoulder while thrusting the bat knob back and forth toward the strike zone. This movement was widely considered Cal's batting masterpiece."
- "I don’t agree with your stance on gun control."
- "His [François Hollande's] stance as being against the world of finance and his proposal of a 75% tax on incomes over €1m (£817,000) was approved by a majority in polls. He was convinced that his more measured, if ploddingly serious, style would win out with an electorate tired of [Nicolas] Sarkozy's bling and frenetic policy initiatives."
- "No! sooner may the Saxon lance / Unfix Benledi from his stance, / Than doubt or terror can pierce through / The unyielding heart of Robert Dhu; […]"
Etymology
From Middle English staunce (“place to stand; battle station; position; standing in society; circumstance, situation; stanchion”), from Old French estance (“predicament; situation; sojourn, stay”) (compare modern French stance (“stanza; position one stands in when golfing”)), from Italian stanza (“room, standing place; stanza”), from Vulgar Latin *stantia, from Latin stō (“to stand; to remain, stay”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”). The word is cognate with Spanish estante (“shelf”) and a doublet of stanza. The verb is derived from the noun. Compare typologically Czech postoj (“stance (the way of holding a body); stance (point of view)”) (cognate via PIE). Also see position, posture.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /stæns/
- British English: /stæns/