positional

adjective po·si·tion·al \ pə-ˈzi-sh(ə-)nəl \

|Updated on: 9 Jun 2018

Definition of positional

1 : of, relating to, or fixed by position

positional astronomy

2 : involving little movement

positional warfare

3 : dependent on position or environment or context

the front-articulated \k\ in \kē\ key and the back-articulated \k\ in \kül\ cool are positional variants

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positionally

adverb

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Recent Examples of positional from the Web

Except for Duplantis, the one positional player who's been in the lineup through it all.

— brody miller, NOLA.com, "Antoine Duplantis has been LSU baseball's rock his whole college career," 31 May 2018
In this last round game, Chakkravarthy surprised his opponent, Deep Sengupta, with a shocking positional piece sacrifice, which whether theory or not, was amazingly strong.

— chris chase, BostonGlobe.com, "Chess notes," 27 May 2018
The four is probably his most natural spot, despite a lack of ideal positional size.

— jeremy woo, SI.com, "2018 NBA Mock Draft 7.0: Projecting All 60 Picks After Phoenix's Landmark Lottery Win," 15 May 2018
Half Dome, as shown at the F8 Developer Conference stage on Wednesday, looks almost identical to the existing Oculus Rift, with more noticeable bumps (likely for the sake of positional tracking, but not confirmed).

— sam machkovech, Ars Technica, "Oculus reveals its next big VR trick: Wider-FOV lenses that automatically move," 2 May 2018
Sandwiched in between are the guards -- the most invisible members of an already underappreciated positional group.

— michael casagrande, AL.com, "The most forgotten players on the football field," 17 Apr. 2018
Bridges may be an ideal fit for the Sixers, who play more of a fluid positional style with Ben Simmons at the point, and could use an athlete like him to help run the floor.

— ej smith, Philly.com, "Sixers' NBA draft prospects: A running list of players meeting with the front office at the combine," 19 May 2018
Sophomore Height: 6-7 • Weight: 225 Bridges has NBA athleticism, but a question remains about positional fit.

— michael singer, USA TODAY, "2018 NBA mock draft: Suns take Deandre Ayton at No. 1, Kings settle on star Luka Doncic," 16 May 2018
In two games against Golden State, Mbah a Moute was positional silly putty.

— ben cohen, WSJ, "Mbah-a-Mouteball: How the Rockets Chased Value to Challenge the Warriors," 10 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'positional.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of positional

circa 1560

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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POSITIONAL Defined for English Language Learners

positional

adjective

Definition of positional for English Language Learners

: relating to the position of someone or something

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positional

Definition of positional

positionally

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positional

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positionally

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