Stationary

//ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛɹi// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One who, or that which, is stationary, such as a planet when apparently it has neither progressive nor retrograde motion. obsolete, rare

    "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."

  2. 2
    Misspelling of stationery. alt-of, misspelling
Adjective
  1. 1
    Not moving. not-comparable

    "The train remained stationary for a few moments, before lurching forward along the track."

  2. 2
    Incapable of being moved. not-comparable
  3. 3
    Unchanging. not-comparable
Adjective
  1. 1
    not capable of being moved wordnet
  2. 2
    standing still wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
fixedchangelessimmobilefixedimmobileinanimate

Example

More examples

"The population remains stationary."

Etymology

From Latin stationarius, from statio, ultimately from stō (“to stand”). Doublet of stationer.

Related phrases

non-stationarystationary airstationary bicyclestationary bikestationary distributionstationary enginestationary frontstationary phasestationary phase approximationstationary pointstationary wavestrict-sense stationary

More for "stationary"

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Editorial Guides For "stationary"

Stationary vs Stationery: Avoid a Costly Typo

Use stationary and stationery correctly in business and school writing.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.