Other forms: positions, positioned, positioning
A position is where something is placed. The position of the switch, get into position, move it into position. It is the general word for a location or an arrangement in space.
Three other senses are just as common. A position is a job, especially in job advertisements — she applied for a position in the finance team — and that is more formal than post. A position is also an opinion formally held: the government's position on the treaty. And in sport it is the role a player has on the field. The phrase in a position to means able to, and it is a standard formal hedge: I am not in a position to comment.
1nounpositionThe place where somebody or something is.~71%
“Note the position of the fire exits.”
2nounjobA job.~22%
“The position was advertised in June.”
3nounopinionAn opinion formally held.~5%
“The council has not changed its position.”
4verbputTo put something in a particular place.~2%
“Position the ladder against the wall before you climb.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 23 sentences found in the wild and placed 22 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
position is a place or arrangement.
Latin positio came from ponere, to place — the same verb behind pose, deposit, compose and postpone. Everything in this large family is about putting something somewhere, and a position is where the putting ended up.
Proto-Indo-European
*tḱey-
Latin
positiō — a putting, position
Old French
posicion
Middle English
posicioun
English, today
position
Built from
From Middle English posicioun, from Old French posicion, from Latin positiō (“a putting, position”), from positus (“placed, situated”), past participle of pōnō (“to place”); see ponent. Compare apposition, composition, deposition; see pose.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA