DictionaryAI

stationary

USSTAY-shuh-ner-ee/ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛɹi/UKSTAY-shuh-nuh-ree/ˈsteɪʃ(ə)n(ə)ɹi/

Often confused with stationery

4 meanings of stationary

Practice

  1. 1
    adjective
    Not moving, or standing still in one place.

    Traffic on the bridge remained stationary for nearly an hour after the crash.

    The cyclist slammed into a stationary van parked across the bike lane.

    Similarstill, motionless, unmoving, immobile, fixed

    Oppositemoving

    Note

    Latin stō, "to stand", lies at the root, and the word still describes standing still rather than being fixed. It usually follows a verb of staying, as in remain stationary or stay stationary, or describes something that has stopped for now, like a stationary van or a line of stationary traffic. Like still and motionless, it does not take more or most.

  2. 2
    adjective
    Incapable of being moved; fixed in place.

    The mill ran on a stationary steam engine bolted to a concrete base.

    Unlike the mobile units, the stationary speed cameras are mounted permanently on poles.

    Similarimmovable, fixed, immobile, static, stuck

    Oppositemobile, moveable

    Note

    Here the thing is built to stay put, not merely stopped, so the natural opposite is mobile or movable rather than moving: a stationary engine bolted to a base, a stationary camera fixed to a pole. The contrast with the plain "not moving" sense is permanence, since a stationary van can drive off but a stationary engine cannot.

  3. 3
    adjective
    Not changing; remaining the same over time.

    The town's population has remained stationary since the factory closed.

    Wages stayed stationary while rents kept climbing.

    Similarunchanging, constant, static, unvarying, changeless

    Oppositechanging, variable, mutable

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    nounobsolete
    A person or thing that is stationary, such as a planet at a point where it appears to have neither forward nor retrograde motion.
    As also, that then they [the planets] are Stationaries in their houses which be in the middle points of the latitudes, which they cal eclipticks.
    1601, Pliny the Elder, “[Book II.]”
    Note

    Old astronomy used the noun for a planet that seems to hang still in the sky, moving neither forward nor backward; Philemon Holland's 1601 translation of Pliny calls such planets Stationaries. The noun has long fallen out of use, and a planet in that position is now simply said to appear stationary.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of stationary apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

From Latin stationarius, from statio, ultimately from stō ("to stand"). It is a doublet of stationer.