Ask WordMum: Stationery vs Stationary
Does the choice between stationery and stationary cause a riot of chaotic options; much like choosing your favourite pen? Read on as WordMum stills the chaos of this confusion.
Our Question
How do I know when to use stationary in a sentence or stationery?
Terrible Advice
The changing of one letter is just a typo, if your writing software doesn’t highlight an error; then it’s all good.
WordMum Says
This is one I always have to stop and think about! Those one-letter differences can be tricky.
Let’s see if we can untangle these two words.
Stationary (adjective)
This word refers to a person or object that is not moving. It is static and possibly cannot move. It’s not necessarily about physical motion or travelling; for example, a stationary population is one that is remaining static, meaning the number is not going up or down.
This word is an adjective, so it tells us about the object or subject of a sentence but cannot be either of those things.
One way to remember it is that a standing person is stationary, and we can use the ‘a’ in stand to remember how to spell it in this case.
Stationery (noun)
This one refers to some of writers’ favourite things: pens, paper, other writing implements, and office supplies. Who doesn’t love pretty stationery!
This word is a noun, so it can be the object or subject of a sentence. Its placement is therefore quite different to the other spelling of the word.
One way to remember the spelling to use is that a pen is a piece of stationery, and we use its ‘e’ as the last vowel in the word. If you can replace stationery in a sentence with pen and it still makes sense, then this is likely the version you mean.
Example Time!
Now that we’ve defined which is which, let’s see them in action.
The stationary store
This phrase uses the ‘a’ spelling, which links back to the word stand, so it means a store that is not moving. Most bricks and mortar stores don’t move around, so this may be redundant, but if you’re talking about the kind of store that can move around, it might be a useful distinction to make.
In this case, stationary is telling us something about what the store is like or an aspect of its appearance or behaviour.
The stationery store
Here, we have the ‘e’ spelling instead, which takes us to ‘pen’, which means writing equipment and supplies. That is the sort of thing a store might sell, and who doesn’t love a place where you can buy pens and paper?
Here, stationery is telling us what kind of store this time by naming what it sells or what type it is. This is the more common (and likely correct) version of this phrase that you will see.
She looked around for her stationery
This is describing a writer in search of a pen! Stationery is the object of the sentence and it makes sense exactly as it is.
If we tried to use stationary here instead, the sentence isn’t complete. What is static and not moving? The subject of the sentence is the person looking around but there’s no object she’s looking for. So we know that probably isn’t the version of the word we want here.
He was stationary
This one is using the ‘a’ spelling (like stand), so it means that the person was not moving. He might be sitting, standing, or lying down; that is unclear, but we do know that whichever it is, it’s not changing.
If we tried to use the other meaning, that would mean that the person is used to write, like a pen (‘e’ spelling) or a piece of paper. That doesn’t make sense, as a person’s body is not usually used to write with outside of perhaps a horror story (fiction can give you options!). It could be talking about someone being written upon (with a pen or when getting a tattoo), though that would be an unusual and dehumanising way to phrase it. If that’s what you’re going for, that’s great!
The stationary stationery was in disarray
This is grammatically correct, if a little troubling. Perhaps don’t do this. Also, don’t keep your stationery in disarray, it’s upsetting and you deserve better.
So there you have it! May your stationery always be stationary so you know where to find it.
That’s it for Ask WordMum in 2025! I hope you found the series useful and informative.
Do you want more of this sort of thing? Are there more words you’d like us to tackle? What other writing aspects would you like to learn more about? What are you curious about? Let your WordMum know how the WordFam can support you and your writing!