stand.
To position or be positioned physically:
Meaning & usage
To position or be positioned physically: To support oneself on the feet in an erect position.
Here I stand, wondering what to do next.
I can't reach the ceiling. Get me a chair to stand on.
To position or be positioned physically: To rise to one’s feet; to stand up.
Stand up, walk to the refrigerator, and get your own snack.
To position or be positioned physically: To remain motionless.
Do not leave your car standing in the road.
To position or be positioned physically: To be placed in an upright or vertical orientation.
To position or be positioned physically: To place in an upright or standing position.
He stood the broom in a corner and took a break.
To position or be positioned physically: To occupy or hold a place; to be set, placed, fixed, located, or situated.
Paris stands on the Seine.
To position or be positioned physically: To measure when erect on the feet.
To position or be positioned physically: To be present, to have welled up.
To position or be positioned mentally: To be positioned to gain or lose.
He stands to get a good price for the house.
To position or be positioned mentally: To tolerate.
I can’t stand when people don’t read the instructions.
I can’t stand him.
To position or be positioned mentally: To maintain one's ground; to be acquitted; not to fail or yield; to be safe.
To position or be positioned mentally: To maintain an invincible or permanent attitude; to be fixed, steady, or firm; to take a position in resistance or opposition.
To position or be positioned mentally: To be in some particular state; to have essence or being; to be; to consist.
To position or be positioned socially: To act as an umpire.
To position or be positioned socially: To undergo; withstand; hold up.
The works of Shakespeare have stood the test of time.
To position or be positioned socially: To be a candidate (in an election).
He is standing for election to the local council.
To position or be positioned socially: To remain valid.
What I said yesterday still stands.
To position or be positioned socially: To oppose, usually as a team, in competition.
To position or be positioned socially: To cover the expense of; to pay for.
to stand a round of drinks
to stand a treat
To position or be positioned socially: To have or maintain a position, order, or rank; to be in a particular relation.
Christian charity, or love, stands first in the rank of gifts.
To position or be positioned socially: To be consistent; to agree; to accord.
To position or be positioned socially: To appear in court.
Of a ship or its captain, to steer, sail (in a specified direction, for a specified destination etc.).
To remain without ruin or injury.
To stop asking for more cards; to keep one's hand as it has been dealt so far.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-der. Proto-Germanic *standaną Proto-West Germanic *standan Old English standan Middle English stonden English stand From Middle English stonden, standen (verb) and stand, stond (noun, from the verb), from Old English standan (“to stand, occupy a place”), from Proto-West Germanic *standan, from Proto-Germanic *standaną (“to stand”), from Pre-Germanic *sth₂-n-t-´, an innovative extended n-infixed form of Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-. Cognates Cognate with Scots staund (“to stand”), Yola sthoan, sthoane, sthone, stoane (“to stand”), North Frisian staan, stoune, stuine, stun, stönje, stööne (“to stand”), Saterland Frisian stounde (“to stand”), Danish stande (“to stand”), Faroese and Icelandic standa (“to stand”), Norwegian Nynorsk standa, stå (“to stand”), Swedish stånda (“to stand”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰𐌽 (standan, “to stand”). From the related Proto-Germanic *stāną (“to stand”): West Frisian stean (“to stand”), Alemannic German staa (“to stand”), Central Franconian stiehn, stohn, stonn (“to stand”), Cimbrian stean (“to stand”), Dutch staan (“to stand”), German stehen (“to stand”), Low German stahn, staon (“to stand”), Luxembourgish stoen (“to stand”), Vilamovian śtejn (“to stand”), Yiddish שטיין (shteyn, “to stand”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish stå (“to stand”), Faroese stá (“to stand”). Also from *steh₂-: Breton and Cornish sevel (“to stand”), Welsh sefyll (“to stand”), Latin stō (“to stand”), Greek σταυρός (stavrós, “cross”), Albanian shtyllë (“pillar; column”), Latvian stāvēt (“to stand”), Lithuanian stóti, stovėti (“to stand”), Belarusian стая́ць (stajácʹ, “to stand”), Bulgarian стоя́ (stojá, “to stand, stay”), Czech stát (“to stand”), Macedonian стои (stoi, “to stand”), Polish stać, stojeć (“to stand”), Russian стоя́ть (stojátʹ, “to stand”), Serbo-Croatian ста̏јати, stȁjati (“to stand”), Slovak stáť (“to stand”), Slovene státi (“to stand”), Ukrainian стоя́ти (stojáty, “to stand”), Armenian ստվար (stvar, “large, thick; dense”), Ossetian стын (styn, “to stand up”), Northern Kurdish rawestîn (“to stand”), Persian ایستادن (istâdan), وایسادن (vâysâdan), وایستادن (vâystâdan, “to stand up”), Tocharian A ṣtäm- (“to stand”), Tocharian B stäm- (“to stand”), Sanskrit स्था (sthā, “to stand”).
The act of standing.
A defensive position or effort.
The Commander says we will make our stand here.
A resolute, unwavering position; firm opinion; action for a purpose in the face of opposition.
They took a firm stand against copyright infringement.
A period of performance in a given location or venue.
They have a four-game stand at home against the Yankees.
They spent the summer touring giving 4 one-night stands a week.
A device to hold something upright or aloft.
He set the music upon the stand and began to play. an umbrella stand; a hat-stand
The platform on which a witness testifies in court; the witness stand or witness box.
She took the stand and quietly answered questions.
An area of raised seating for waiters at the stock exchange.
A particular grove or other group of trees or shrubs.
This stand of pines is older than the one next to it.
A contiguous group of trees sufficiently uniform in age-class distribution, composition, and structure, and growing on a site of sufficiently uniform quality, to be a distinguishable unit.
A standstill, a motionless state, as of someone confused, or a hunting dog who has found game.
A small building, booth, or stage, as in a bandstand or hamburger stand.
A designated spot where someone or something may stand or wait.
a taxi stand
A designated spot where someone or something may stand or wait. The place a shearer takes in a shearing shed.
The situation of a shop, store, hotel, etc.
a good, bad, or convenient stand for business
Ellipsis of tavern stand (“a roadside inn”).
Grandstand. (often in the plural)
Are your seats in the stands or on the floor?
A partnership.
A single set of arms (weaponry).
Rank; post; station; standing.
A state of perplexity or embarrassment.
to be at a stand what to do
A young tree, usually reserved when other trees are cut; also, a tree growing or standing upon its own root, in distinction from one produced from a scion set in a stock, either of the same or another kind of tree.
A location or position where one may stand.
An advertisement filling an entire billboard, comprising many sheets of paper.
A group of flamingos.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-der. Proto-Germanic *standaną Proto-West Germanic *standan Old English standan Middle English stonden English stand From Middle English stonden, standen (verb) and stand, stond (noun, from the verb), from Old English standan (“to stand, occupy a place”), from Proto-West Germanic *standan, from Proto-Germanic *standaną (“to stand”), from Pre-Germanic *sth₂-n-t-´, an innovative extended n-infixed form of Proto-Indo-European *steh₂-. Cognates Cognate with Scots staund (“to stand”), Yola sthoan, sthoane, sthone, stoane (“to stand”), North Frisian staan, stoune, stuine, stun, stönje, stööne (“to stand”), Saterland Frisian stounde (“to stand”), Danish stande (“to stand”), Faroese and Icelandic standa (“to stand”), Norwegian Nynorsk standa, stå (“to stand”), Swedish stånda (“to stand”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰𐌽 (standan, “to stand”). From the related Proto-Germanic *stāną (“to stand”): West Frisian stean (“to stand”), Alemannic German staa (“to stand”), Central Franconian stiehn, stohn, stonn (“to stand”), Cimbrian stean (“to stand”), Dutch staan (“to stand”), German stehen (“to stand”), Low German stahn, staon (“to stand”), Luxembourgish stoen (“to stand”), Vilamovian śtejn (“to stand”), Yiddish שטיין (shteyn, “to stand”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish stå (“to stand”), Faroese stá (“to stand”). Also from *steh₂-: Breton and Cornish sevel (“to stand”), Welsh sefyll (“to stand”), Latin stō (“to stand”), Greek σταυρός (stavrós, “cross”), Albanian shtyllë (“pillar; column”), Latvian stāvēt (“to stand”), Lithuanian stóti, stovėti (“to stand”), Belarusian стая́ць (stajácʹ, “to stand”), Bulgarian стоя́ (stojá, “to stand, stay”), Czech stát (“to stand”), Macedonian стои (stoi, “to stand”), Polish stać, stojeć (“to stand”), Russian стоя́ть (stojátʹ, “to stand”), Serbo-Croatian ста̏јати, stȁjati (“to stand”), Slovak stáť (“to stand”), Slovene státi (“to stand”), Ukrainian стоя́ти (stojáty, “to stand”), Armenian ստվար (stvar, “large, thick; dense”), Ossetian стын (styn, “to stand up”), Northern Kurdish rawestîn (“to stand”), Persian ایستادن (istâdan), وایسادن (vâysâdan), وایستادن (vâystâdan, “to stand up”), Tocharian A ṣtäm- (“to stand”), Tocharian B stäm- (“to stand”), Sanskrit स्था (sthā, “to stand”).
A container which stands upright, such as a barrel or cask.
A weight of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds, used in weighing pitch.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English stand, stande, stond, stonde, stoonde, probably from Middle Dutch stande, from Old Dutch *standan (“to stand”), from Frankish *standan. Forms with -o- may show influence of stonden (“stand”, verb).
Try it on your idea.
stand has 5 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.