sedentary

UK/ˈsɛd.ən.tə.ɹi/US/ˈsɛd.ən.tɛɹ.i/

adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,130 of 15,258leans written

Sedentary means involving a great deal of sitting. A sedentary job.

Sitting for long stretches is now treated as a health risk on its own, separate from exercise. A sedentary bird or animal is one that does not migrate, which is the biological sense.

Definitions of sedentary

1adjectivesedentaryInvolving a great deal of sitting.C1
“The job was sedentary and the commute was the only walking he did.”

sedentary is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin sedentarius comes from sedere, to sit.

Proto-Indo-European
*sed-
Latin
sedentārius — sitting
Middle French
sédentaire
English, today
sedentary

Built from

sedeō · Latin — to sit, to be seated

From Middle French sédentaire, from Latin sedentārius (“sitting”), from sedeō (“to sit, to be seated”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

sedentary in the wild

Sitting time is a common measure of a sedentary lifestyle.
Sedentary lifestyle
As of 2026, the large majority of people belong to sedentary cultures.
Sedentism
The invention of agriculture led to sedentism in many cases, but the earliest sedentary settlements were pre-agricultural.
Sedentism
The sedentary militia eventually fell into disuse in the late-19th century, although vestiges of the sedentary militia system continued into the early-20th century.
Canadian Militia
Some nomadic empires consolidated by establishing a capital city inside a conquered sedentary state and then exploiting the existing bureaucrats and commercial resources of that non nomadic society.
Nomadic empire

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the sedeō family

president

sedentary — used about once every 18,318 pages · #13,130 · point at the bar for the others

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