The meanings of these words are not related although they share the root word station.
Stationary is an adjective meaning “staying in the same place.” Dictionaries say “immobile,” but this is not quite correct; immobile means not moving, like a statue—not moving any parts. But stationary only implies staying in the same location. A person waving their arms could still be stationary. So station–ary means “being at a station (place),” not frozen.
Stationery is a noun meaning “equipment for writing physical mail (correspondence)”—i.e. pens, paper, envelopes, etc. It cannot be used for e-mail. Stationery is a mass noun (non-count noun), so it has no plural form, and is always plural in meaning. One can have a piece of stationery or pieces of stationery, not stationeries. A piece of stationery always means a piece of writing paper, even though stationery in general can include pens, envelopes, etc.
To remember these, note(1) that -ary is a common adjective ending, such as in elementary or ordinary, while -ery is not a regular ending in English at all. (2) Stationery comes from station-er, which is a person who works at a station. In older times, if one wanted to send mail, one had to go to a station and get the help of a stationer. Thus stationer-y are the tools of stationers (which is no longer a word).
More Examples of “Stationary” in a Sentence
- James rode a stationary bike during the portion of practice open to media.
- He had propped his foot up on a curb to keep it stationary.
- There, two stationary cars, sit for hours at a time watching the residence.
- Mike typically divides an hour of cardio between the elliptical and stationary bike.
- Slightly increased the amount of time she’s stationary after lunging at a ball.
More Examples of “Stationery” in a Sentence
- The letter was written on camp stationery, with a blue and green logo.
- The school must remove all mention of vacated events from athletic department stationery.
- Save money on stationery items for back to school, home decor products, and gifts.
- Along the typography he had a stationery shop to sell books and paper.
- The winning submissions are then sold as art, home décor, and stationery to consumers.