setting

An option on a machine or program that controls how it works.

• Change the setting to save power.
• Check your phone’s privacy settings.
• The machine remembers the last setting you used.

Common phrases: change a setting, default setting, privacy setting, volume setting

The place, time, and situation in which a story or performance happens.

• The story has a modern setting.
• The setting of the play is ancient Rome.
• She chose a seaside town as the setting for her novel.

How to use it: the setting of/for something (A small village is the setting for the novel.)

Similar words: background, context

Common phrases: historical setting, setting of something, rural setting

The act of putting something in place, or a process such as the sun going down.

• The setting of the sun filled the sky with colour.
• The setting of the table took several minutes.
• Cold weather can slow the setting of concrete.

How to use it: the setting of something (We watched the setting of the sun.)

Common phrases: setting of something, setting of the sun, setting of concrete

Describing the sun or another object in the sky as it moves below the horizon.

• We watched the setting sun.
• The setting moon disappeared behind the hills.
• The setting sun cast long shadows across the field.

Opposites: rising

Common phrases: setting sun, setting moon, light of setting sun