Meaning & use
status
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Meanings
noununcountable
The level of respect or rank that a person or group has in society or an organization.
Grammar: Not used in the plural for this sense: social status, not social statuses.
Patterns
- the status of someone
- high status
Doctors still enjoy high status in many countries.
The job gave him a feeling of status among his friends.
Her status as team captain earned her respect.
noununcountablelegal
A person's or group's official position in law, such as citizen or student.
Grammar: Often with a descriptor before it: legal status, marital status.
Patterns
- the legal status of someone
- have status as something
Please state your marital status on the form.
The refugees were granted legal status in the country.
The charity has official nonprofit status.
nounsingular
The present condition or stage of something that is changing, such as a project or order.
Grammar: Usually takes the: the status of my order.
Patterns
- the status of something
- check the status of something
Can you check the status of my application?
The status of the repair is still unknown.
Each task shows a status of pending or complete.
Word forms
| plural | statuses |
|---|
Common combinations
- social status
- Social status shaped who could join the club.
- legal status
- The court clarified the legal status of the land.
- status update
- Send me a quick status update by Friday.
- marital status
- The form asks for your name and marital status.
- status symbol
- For some, a large car is a status symbol.
- gain status
- The village gained town status last year.
Synonyms and how they differ
- standing
- Standing is similar for reputation, but it is more about how others view you than about formal rank.
- rank
- Rank is a fixed position in a ladder, such as in the army, while status can be informal.
- prestige
- Prestige means admiration linked to success, whereas status can be high or low.
- condition
- Condition fits the sense of present state, but it often refers to physical state, not stages of a process.
Opposites
Word family
- statusless adjective
- having no social or official status (rare)
- status quo noun
- the existing state of affairs
- status-conscious adjective
- caring a lot about social rank
Commonly confused: status or statue? status or stature?
status vs statue
A statue is a carved or cast figure of a person or animal; status is rank or condition. The words look alike but are unrelated.
status vs stature
Stature means height or the importance a person has earned, and it is narrower than status.
Practice
Before I book the flights, I need to check the ______ of my visa application.
Choose one answer.
Status means the current stage of an ongoing process. Statue and stature are look-alike words with different meanings, and stay does not fit the pattern.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “status”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.