Sitting is the position you take when you rest your weight on your bottom, usually with your back upright and your legs bent. Right now, you're probably sitting while reading this, maybe at a desk, on a couch, or in a car.

People sit to work, eat, read, watch movies, or rest their legs after standing or walking. Your body is designed to move between sitting, standing, and lying down throughout the day. Sitting becomes uncomfortable when you do it too long because your muscles need variety and movement.

The word also describes the act of lowering yourself into this position: “Please sit down” or “She sat in the front row.” When something is sitting somewhere, it's resting in a place without moving, like books sitting on a shelf or a letter sitting on your desk, waiting to be mailed.

A sitting can also mean a single continuous period of doing something, like finishing a long book “in one sitting” without getting up, or an artist asking someone to pose for a portrait during a sitting.

In some contexts, sitting describes being in session or meeting: when Congress is sitting, its members are actively meeting and working, not on vacation or break.