Configuration

How to spell configuration

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce configuration

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does configuration mean?

1. nounThe particular way the parts of something are arranged or set up.

Configuration in a sentence

• The engineer saved the network configuration before rebooting the server.

• The new office layout uses an open-plan configuration with shared desks.

Where does configuration come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin configurare, meaning 'to shape after a pattern' or 'to form together', built from the prefix con- 'together' and figurare 'to form or shape', which itself derives from figura 'a shape or figure'. In late Latin the related noun configuratio referred to the relative arrangement of things, especially the positions of stars and planets in early astronomy. English took the word in the late 1500s, at first largely in that astrological and astronomical sense of how heavenly bodies were arranged. Over time it broadened to mean any particular arrangement of the parts of something, and in the twentieth century it became a staple of engineering and computing for the specific way a system or device is set up. The same figura root sits inside the familiar words 'figure' and 'disfigure', and remembering that middle 'figur' helps keep the spelling steady through the long unstressed run of vowels.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• figur (from figura: shape, form)
• -ation (noun of action/state)