Amenities

How to spell amenities

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce amenities

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does amenities mean?

1. nounDesirable or useful features and facilities that add comfort or convenience to a place.

Amenities in a sentence

• The apartment block offers shared amenities including a gym and a laundry room.

• Travellers compared hotels by price and the range of amenities on offer.

Where does amenities come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin amoenitas, meaning 'pleasantness' or 'delightfulness', which was built on the adjective amoenus, literally 'pleasant' or 'agreeable to the senses'. The Romans often used amoenus to describe places that were lovely to be in, such as a charming garden or a delightful stretch of countryside, so the idea of physical comfort and attractive surroundings was baked in from the start. English picked up the word through Old French in the late 1300s, at first meaning the quality of being pleasant or agreeable in manner. Over time, especially from the nineteenth century, the plural 'amenities' settled into its modern sense: the desirable features and conveniences of a place, such as the facilities offered by a hotel or a town. The spelling trap lies in that opening 'amen', which looks like the familiar word ending a prayer but here simply preserves the Latin root for 'pleasant', and in the unstressed middle vowel that sounds like a soft schwa rather than the clear 'i' that is actually written.

How the word is built

• amen- (from Latin amoenus: pleasant, agreeable)
• -ity (noun-forming suffix)
• -es (plural)