unseat
verb
Simple meaning
To remove from an office or position.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhnseetSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ənˈsit
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitivefiguratively
To remove (someone) from an office or position, especially a political one; to dethrone.
“The Republicans are trying to unseat the liberal Democrat.”
Dislodge from one's seat, as from a horse
transitive
To dislodge or remove (someone) from a seat, especially on horseback.
transitivefiguratively
To cause (something) to be removed or replaced in its role; to displace, to overturn.
transitivefiguratively
To upset the composure of (someone); to astound, to shock, to unsettle.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To remove (someone) from an office or position, especially a political one; to dethrone.
Used this way, unseat is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in government or politics contexts.
“The Republicans are trying to unseat the liberal Democrat.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Government/politics
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use unseat
- “The Republicans are trying to unseat the liberal Democrat.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- electionnoun
- liberalnoun
- democratnoun
- republicannoun
- congressionaladjective
- sittingnoun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.