stance

noun \ ˈstan(t)s \

|Updated on: 17 Jun 2018

Definition of stance

1 chiefly Scotland

a : station

b : site

2 a : a way of standing or being placed : posture

b : intellectual or emotional attitude

took an antiwar stance

3 a : the position of the feet of a golfer or batter preparatory to making a swing

b : the position of both body and feet from which an athlete starts or operates

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Recent Examples of stance from the Web

The stance of Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, who heads the coalition’s junior partner, the right-wing Independent Greeks party, will be crucial.

— Washington Post, "Greece: Opposition head to call no-confidence vote in gov’t," 14 June 2018
In Northern Ireland, pro-choice politicians and campaigners want to liberalize the country's strict stance, which is now out of step with the rest of the UK and the rest of the island of Ireland.

— refinery29.com, "Abortion Is Still Banned In All These Countries," 31 May 2018
But some Democrats have questioned whether his progressive stances on a range of issues—from health care and education to the economy, immigration, and the environment—are genuine.

— jeffrey mervis, Science | AAAS, "The science candidates: Kopser builds big tent after win in Texas," 30 May 2018
The party has no official stance on euthanasia and is allowing its lawmakers to vote according to their conscience.

— barry hatton, The Seattle Times, "Portugal considers allowing euthanasia, assisted suicide," 28 May 2018
Brees thinks all players should stand during the anthem, so his stance is unchanged with the new rule.

— josh katzenstein, NOLA.com, "New Orleans Saints react to NFL's new national anthem rules," 24 May 2018
My stance, and the point of this book, is this system makes teams better, period.

— recode staff, Recode, "Full transcript: Kleiner Perkins Chairman John Doerr on Recode Decode," 19 May 2018
Yes, my stance is for the Black community to be represented more on and off the runway.

— amira rasool, Teen Vogue, "How 'Ghetto Until Proven Fashionable' Shirt Designer Nareasha Willis Fights Cultural Appropriation," 15 May 2018
His stance is, look, why do all those big, important dreams have to be about going away?

— james hebert, sandiegouniontribune.com, "At Cygnet Theatre, 'The Wind and the Breeze' explores the meaning of home," 15 May 2018

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

Origin and Etymology of stance

Middle English stance, staunce, from Middle French estance position, posture, stay, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *stantia, from Latin stant-, stans, present participle of stare to stand

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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