Stationary vs. Stationery

Stationary vs. Stationery

  • Stationary is an adjective that describes something that isn't moving.
  • Stationery is a noun that refers to writing material like paper and envelopes.

Here's one way to remember it: when you stay, you're stationary.

P.S. Remember the good ol' days, when people used to write letters? Nope, neither do we. But they would've written those letters on stationery!

Examples

Eliza ends every workout with forty-five minutes on the stationary bike.

The scenery may be awful, but a stationary bike is a great way to get fit in terrible weather (or a pandemic). Stationary is the right word for the job in this sentence because it's describing a bike that's not going anywhere.

Clint remained stationary until the spider scuttled out of the room.

Since Clint is paralyzed by fear, stationary is the correct word in this creepy-crawly sentence.

Faith refuses to embrace email and still sends all of her correspondence on personalized stationery.

How quaint and time-consuming! In this sentence we're talking about Faith's fancy writing materials, so stationery is the way to go.

 

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