Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A place or location.
  • noun The right or appropriate place.
  • noun A strategic area occupied by members of a force.
  • noun The way in which something is placed.
  • noun The arrangement of body parts; posture.
  • noun In ballet, any of the five arrangements of the arms and feet in which the legs are turned out from the pelvis.
  • noun An advantageous place or location.
  • noun A situation as it relates to the surrounding circumstances.
  • noun A point of view or attitude on a certain question.
  • noun Social standing or status; rank.
  • noun A post of employment; a job.
  • noun Sports The area for which a particular player is responsible.
  • noun The arrangement of the pieces or cards at any particular time in a game such as chess, checkers, or bridge.
  • noun The act or process of positing.
  • noun A principle or proposition posited.
  • noun A commitment to buy or sell a given amount of securities or commodities.
  • noun The amount of securities or commodities held by a person, firm, or institution.
  • noun The ownership status of a person's or institution's investments.
  • transitive verb To put in place or position.
  • transitive verb To determine the position of; locate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To place with relation to other objects; set in a definite place.
  • noun Specifically, in archery, the attitude or standing of an archer in the act of shooting.
  • noun The aggregate of spatial relations of a body or figure, considered as rigid, to other such bodies or figures; the definition of the place of a thing; situation.
  • noun Hence Status or standing; social rank or condition: as, social position; a man of position.
  • noun The act of positing or asserting; also, the assertion itself; affirmation; principle laid down.
  • noun A place occupied or to be occupied.
  • noun Posture or manner of standing, sitting, or lying; attitude: as, an uneasy position.
  • noun Place; proper or appropriate place: as, his lance was in position; specifically (military), the proper place to make or receive an attack.
  • noun In arithmetic, the act of assuming an approximate value for an unknown quantity, and thence determining that quantity by means of the data of a given question.
  • noun In logic, the laying down of a proposition, generally an arbitrary supposition; also, the proposition itself.
  • noun In ancient prosody, the situation of a vowel before two or more consonants or a double consonant, tending to retard utterance and consequently to lengthen the syllable; such combination of consonants, or the prosodic effect produced by it.
  • noun In obstetrics, the relation between the body of the fetus and the pelvis of the mother in any given presentation.
  • noun Thesis, assertion, doctrine.
  • noun Attitude, Pose, etc. See posture.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb rare To indicate the position of; to place.
  • noun The state of being posited, or placed; the manner in which anything is placed; attitude; condition.
  • noun The spot where a person or thing is placed or takes a place; site; place; station; situation
  • noun Hence: The ground which any one takes in an argument or controversy; the point of view from which any one proceeds to a discussion; also, a principle laid down as the basis of reasoning; a proposition; a thesis
  • noun Relative place or standing; social or official rank; ; hence, office; post.
  • noun (Arith.) A method of solving a problem by one or two suppositions; -- called also the rule of trial and error.
  • noun (Astron.) the angle which any line (as that joining two stars) makes with another fixed line, specifically with a circle of declination.
  • noun (Arith.) the method of solving problems by proceeding with each of two assumed numbers, according to the conditions of the problem, and by comparing the difference of the results with those of the numbers, deducing the correction to be applied to one of them to obtain the true result.
  • noun (Mil.) heavy fieldpieces, not designed for quick movements.
  • noun (Mil.) a range finder. See under Range.
  • noun a micrometer applied to the tube of an astronomical telescope for measuring angles of position in the field of view.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English posicioun, from Old French posicion, from Latin positiō, positiōn-, from positus, past participle of pōnere, to place; see apo- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French position, from Latin positio ("a putting, position"), from ponere, past participle positus ("to put, place"); see ponent. Compare apposition, composition, deposition; see pose.

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Examples

  • The sheer arrogance of the McCain position is stunning; his inability to separate himself from the neoconservative extremists on any foreign policy issue raises major questions about his alleged foreign policy expertise.

    McCain and Israel - Swampland - TIME.com 2008

  • And we let some of them in, sometimes with the unexamined conceit that any shift in position is a window into the candidate's lack of character, toughness or principle.

    The Flip-Flop Obsession - Swampland - TIME.com 2008

  • The change in position is much larger than the errors, showing it to be a real movement in an orbit!

    Archive 2008-12-11 Nicole 2008

  • Obviously, the first problem with McCain position is that for years Alaskans have overwhelmingly favored drilling in ANWR.

    An Unanswered Question for McCain - Real Clear Politics – TIME.com 2008

  • As the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, he rightfully believed that the title position put his place in the uppity-stratospheric levels shared by other internationally famous, extremely wealthy and very powerful male WASP sports figures of his day (think Babe Ruth or John L. Sullivan).

    The Daily News - News 2010

  • As the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, he rightfully believed that the title position put his place in the uppity-stratospheric levels shared by other internationally famous, extremely wealthy and very powerful male WASP sports figures of his day (think Babe Ruth or John L. Sullivan).

    The Daily News - News 2010

  • As the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, he rightfully believed that the title position put his place in the uppity-stratospheric levels shared by other internationally famous, extremely wealthy and very powerful male WASP sports figures of his day (think Babe Ruth or John L. Sullivan).

    The Daily News - News 2010

  • As the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, he rightfully believed that the title position put his place in the uppity-stratospheric levels shared by other internationally famous, extremely wealthy and very powerful male WASP sports figures of his day (think Babe Ruth or John L. Sullivan).

    The Daily News - News 2009

  • Changing the label position from right to bottom then back again seems to have fixed the problem ... for now.

    MacTalk Apple Refurb 2008

  • You therefore assume that my position is also an absolute, always negotiate, always, no matter how ridiculous the claim.

    Obama Administration Looks To Reinstate Assault-Weapons Ban 2009

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