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Colombo Posted 19 years ago
Vocabulary

Stationery

What's the exact meaning of "stationery"? I know it includes paper, envelopes or notepads, but does it also include things like pencils, pens, crayons, rubbers, cardboard bookmarkers, folders, briefcases, Christmas or birthday cards, wrapping paper, Sellotape, staples, elastic bands...? All of these things can be bought at the same shop, but I don't know whether that means they're all stationery.

Thanks in advance.
  

Top answer

Strictly speaking: -------- sta·tio·nery 1 : materials (as paper, pens, pencils, ink, blankbooks, ledgers, and cards) for writing or typing 2 : letter paper usually accompanied with matching envelopes : writing paper <hotel stationery > <write him on the company's stationery > ---------

— Marius Hancu

  • Strictly speaking: -------- sta·tio·nery 1 : materials (as paper, pens, pencils, ink, blankbooks, ledgers, and cards) for writing or typing 2 : letter paper usually accompanied with matching envelopes : writing paper <hotel stationery > <write him on the company's stationery > ---------
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11 Answers
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Strictly speaking:
--------
sta·tio·nery

1 : materials (as paper, pens, pencils, ink, blankbooks, ledgers, and cards) for writing or typing

2 : letter paper usually accompanied with matching envelopes : writing paper <hotel stationery> <write him on the company's stationery>
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Thnak you very much for your answer. Before posting my request I had already looked the word up in the dictionaries listed in the announcement in this forum, and I'd seen that some of them include "office supplies" in the definition, although most of them don't; that's what made me doubt about all those articles. And, by the way, in my previous post I mistakenly included pencils and pens
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Marius HancuStrictly speaking:
--------
sta·tio·nery

1 : materials (as paper, pens, pencils, ink, blankbooks, ledgers, and cards) for writing or typing

2 : letter paper usually accompanied with matching envelopes : writing paper <hotel stationery> <write him on the company's stationery
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In my part of the world, stationery would mean both - and in terms of the materials, offices tend to have a stationery cupboard, and people order stationery supplies from a stationery catalogue. People generally refer to the paper stuff as 'letterhead' or 'headed paper'.

I think in the US the materials are more often called office supplies - correct me if I'm wrong.
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thank you for learning me
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Anonymousthank you for learning me

teachingEmotion: wink
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Marius HancuStrictly speaking:
--------
sta·tio·nery

1 : materials (as paper, pens, pencils, ink, blankbooks, ledgers, and cards) for writing or typing

2 : letter paper usually accompanied with matching envelopes : writing paper <hotel stationery> <write him on the company's stationery
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Thanks again for helping me. Up to now, I had always considered "stationery" as including all type of office supplies, but it's only now that I've had to use the word myself that I've started wondering wheter I was right. It might be a matter of location, as Lil' Ruby Rose has hinted. I've always leant more towards British English, since that's what my teacher taught me. (Or, at least, that's what
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>>>Nowadays I read from so many sources that my English must be a terrible jumble .)

or maybe a wonderful jumble!
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I would prefer to think of it as a delightful pot pourri (if you are more BrE focused) or a sensational jambalaya (if you are more AmE focused)!
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