armchair

A2 Topic:Describing Qualities

Also spelled arm-chair

US /ˈɑɹmt͡ʃɛɚ/ UK /ˈɑː(ɹ)mtʃɛə(ɹ)/ See IPA manual

Freq #20704

Meanings

1

noun
A comfortable chair with supports for your arms.

He sank into the armchair and closed his eyes.
2

adj
Giving opinions or advice on something without having real experience of it.

He's just an armchair critic who has never played the game.

Thesaurus

Word family

Forms armchairs

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- Proto-Indo-European *h₂érmos Proto-Germanic *armaz Proto-West Germanic *arm Old English earm Middle English arm English arm Proto-Indo-European *ḱe Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥-th₂der.? Proto-Hellenic *kətá Ancient Greek κᾰτᾰ́ (kătắ) Proto-Indo-European *sed-der. Proto-Indo-European *sedreh₂ Proto-Hellenic *hédrā Ancient Greek ἕδρᾱ (hédrā) Ancient Greek κᾰθέδρᾱ (kăthédrā)bor. Latin cathedrader. Old French chaierebor. Middle English chayere English chair English armchair From arm + chair.

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Describing Qualities

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# armchair

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A2
**Part of speech:** noun, adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈɑɹmt͡ʃɛɚ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈɑː(ɹ)mtʃɛə(ɹ)/
**Frequency rank:** 20704

## Meanings
1. A comfortable chair with supports for your arms.
2. Giving opinions or advice on something without having real experience of it.

## Examples
- He sank into the armchair and closed his eyes.
- He's just an armchair critic who has never played the game.

## Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- Proto-Indo-European *h₂érmos Proto-Germanic *armaz Proto-West Germanic *arm Old English earm Middle English arm English arm Proto-Indo-European *ḱe Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Indo-European *ḱm̥-th₂der.? Proto-Hellenic *kətá Ancient Greek κᾰτᾰ́ (kătắ) Proto-Indo-European *sed-der. Proto-Indo-European *sedreh₂ Proto-Hellenic *hédrā Ancient Greek ἕδρᾱ (hédrā) Ancient Greek κᾰθέδρᾱ (kăthédrā)bor. Latin cathedrader. Old French chaierebor. Middle English chayere English chair English armchair From arm + chair.

## AI Etymology
Armchair is from arm plus chair. The formation is semantically transparent: the parts remain visible, while the compound or affix fixes the grammatical role and narrows the modern meaning. In use as a noun and an adjective, armchair denotes a comfortable chair with supports for your arms and giving opinions or advice on something without having real experience of it. Typical contexts include “He sank into the armchair and closed his eyes” and “He's just an armchair critic who has never played the game”.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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armchair

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