sitting

The word “sitting” means a period of time spent seated doing a particular activity, often in one continuous stretch. In plain terms, a continuous stretch of time doing something seated, a formal meeting session, or (as an adjective) currently in office.

“Sitting” is pronounced SIH-tihng (/ˈsɪtɪŋ/ in IPA).

Here is “sitting” used in a sentence: “She read the whole book in one sitting.”

Depending on how it is used, “sitting” can be a noun and an adjective.

“Sitting” is a very common word in modern English.

“Sitting” has 3 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a period of time spent seated doing a particular activity, often in one continuous stretch.

'In one sitting' means completing something in a single, continuous session without stopping — for example, reading a whole book or finishing a task in one go. It emphasises that the activity was done straight through, in an unbroken stretch, rather than spread across several separate occasions.

A portrait sitting is a session in which a person poses for an artist or photographer while their likeness is captured. Traditional painted portraits often required several sittings over days or weeks, each one a fixed period of the subject staying still for the artist.

The two words often overlap, and both mean a period spent on one activity. 'Sitting' stresses one continuous, unbroken stretch, often literally seated, while 'session' is broader and can span breaks or recurring meetings. You read a book in one sitting but attend a training session.

In government, a sitting is a single occasion on which a parliament or assembly meets to conduct business, from when it convenes until it adjourns. A day's proceedings are often called that day's sitting, and a longer run of these makes up a parliamentary session.