sofa

"Or you could ask your hosts what they call their furniture. If an upholstered seat for two or more people is called a settee or a couch, they are no higher than middle-middle*. If it is a sofa, they are upper-middle or above." Kate Fox, Watching the English, a very delightful book about the English people.

*class

How would Americans call it?

Is there a difference between a couch and a sofa? If so, what is it?

What do you think about couch?

is one which I particularly abhor