stationary

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

Often confused with stationery

4 meanings of stationary

1
adjective
Staying still and not moving.
The car stayed stationary at the red light.
Keep the camera stationary while you take the picture.
Similarstill, motionless, unmoving, immobile, fixed
Oppositemoving
Note
2
adjective
Not able to be moved from its place.
Our school has a stationary basketball hoop set into the ground.
The heavy stationary machines are bolted to the factory floor.
Similarimmovable, fixed, immobile, static, stuck
Oppositemobile, moveable
Note
3
adjective
Staying the same and not changing.
The number of students at the school has stayed stationary for years.
His weight was stationary all winter, even though he exercised more.
Similarunchanging, constant, static, unvarying, changeless
Oppositechanging, variable, mutable

Less common meaning

4
nounobsolete
Someone or something that is not moving, like a planet that seems to stand still in the sky.
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.]”Here, Stationaries means planets that seem to stand still, moving neither forward nor back.
Note

Practice

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Origin

From a Latin word that goes back to stō, meaning "to stand".