something made for one person to sit on, or the part of a piece of furniture, vehicle, or place where you sit
The bus driver asked the boy to take a seat near the front.
All the seats in the movie theater were full, so we had to wait for the next show.
✦ Old English 'sæt' and 'setl', related to 'sit', meaning a place for sitting
a position as an elected or appointed member of a council, parliament, or other official body
She won a seat in the national assembly after a close election.
The party lost many seats in the recent local elections.
✦ Extension of the basic meaning of a place to sit to the figurative sense of an assigned official place
to show someone where to sit, or to have enough places for a certain number of people
The usher politely seated the guests in the front row.
This van seats eight passengers comfortably.
✦ From Middle English ‘seten’, causative of ‘sit’, meaning to cause to sit
the place where the central offices of a government, organization, or power are located
Washington, D.C. is the seat of the U.S. federal government.
For centuries, Kyoto was the imperial seat of Japan.
✦ From the idea of a fixed place to sit, extended to mean a fixed place where authority resides
