sedan
noun
an enclosed automobile body having two or four doors and seating four or more persons on two full-width seats.
sedan
1 American
[si-dan]
/ sɪˈdæn /
noun
-
sedans
plural
-
an enclosed automobile body having two or four doors and seating four or more persons on two full-width seats.
Sedan
2
American
[si-dan, suh-dahn]
/ sɪˈdæn, səˈdɑ̃ /
noun
sedan
1
British
/ sɪˈdæn /
noun
-
Also called (in Britain and certain other countries): saloon. a closed two-door or four-door car with four to six seats
-
short for sedan chair
Sedan
2
British
/ sədɑ̃, sɪˈdæn /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sedan
First recorded in 1625–35; of obscure origin
Explanation
A sedan is a car that seats at least four people. You might dream of getting a sports car when you're 16, but it's more likely that your parents will loan you the keys to their sedan. In the 17th century, a sedan was "a covered chair on poles," a fancy way for one person to ride, carried by at least four people. Today's sedan seats four, and it's powered by gasoline or electricity. Since about 1912, the word sedan has been used most often for talking about an automobile. The word is rooted in the Latin sedere, "sit."
Vocabulary lists containing sedan
When the Sea Turned to Silver
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Legendary Frybread Drive-In
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The driver of the sedan remained at the scene of the crash and cooperated with authorities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Lucas Scott, a Biddeford resident, said the agents were shouting as they surrounded a white sedan.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
In the dealership I visited, a BYD sedan starts at 49,690 euros, compared with a Tesla model that the salesman estimated at around 65,000 euros.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
Auto sales in the period overwhelmingly consisted of the Model 3 sedan and the Model Y sport utility vehicle, with fewer than three percent going to other vehicles, including Tesla's futuristic Cybertruck.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
The minivan swerved back into the right lane, narrowly missing a head-on collision with the sedan.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
Its lineup now consists of the Model Y SUV, the Model 3 Sedan and the Cybertruck pickup.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
“If we break it, we have no water. Period,” said Jack Warren, the mayor of Sedan, Kansas, a county seat about 100 miles southeast of Wichita and the largest customer of the water district.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 19, 2023
If they could bear him back to the team bus on a Sedan chair, they just might have.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2023
The vehicle appears to be a Kia Sedan with unknown tags.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 6, 2022
Its objective was to capture the critical railroad hub at the city of Sedan, which would break the rail network supporting the German army in France and Belgium.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
Yet Ford has been increasingly interested in sedans, a vehicle category that Detroit automakers have ceded to foreign competitors such as Toyota and Honda.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Yet, when Musk was struggling to ramp up production of Tesla sedans in 2018, his supporters, including billionaire Larry Ellison, could point to a record of superlatives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026
China’s consumer future may not be led only by refrigerators and sedans.
From Barron's ● Apr. 11, 2026
Sales of Chrysler’s gas-guzzling coupes and sedans were tanking.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 4, 2026
Mamá accepted Special Agent Gonzales’s proposal and we were all driven home in a couple of dark sedans.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
