Link Centre Dictionary

situation

si·tua·tion

UK/ˌsɪt͡ʃʉwˈɛjʃ(ə)n/ US/ˌsɪt.juːˈeɪ.ʃən/ very common slang uk us

noun

1.

the general state of things; the combination of circumstances at a given time

  • “the present international situation is dangerous”
  • “wondered how such a state of affairs had come about”
  • “eternal truths will be neither true nor eternal unless they have fresh meaning for every new social situation” Franklin D.Roosevelt
Synonyms
2.

a condition or position in which you find yourself

  • “the unpleasant situation (or position) of having to choose between two evils”
  • “found herself in a very fortunate situation”
Synonyms
3.

a complex or critical or unusual difficulty

  • “the dangerous situation developed suddenly”
  • “that”
  • “;”
4.

physical position in relation to the surroundings

  • “the sites are determined by highly specific sequences of nucleotides”
Synonyms
5.

a job in an organization

  • “he occupied a post in the treasury”
Synonyms

Origin

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”). By surface analysis, situate + -ion.

Phrases

  • chicken-and-egg situation
  • clinical situation
  • in-basket situation
  • interesting situation
  • limit situation
  • situation awareness
  • situation room
  • situation theory

Related words

Word family

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.