Fixture

How to spell fixture

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fixture

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fixture mean?

1. nounA piece of equipment or furniture fastened in place and treated as part of a building.
2. nounA sporting event arranged for a particular date.

Fixture in a sentence

• The estate agent confirmed that the oven was a permanent fixture in the kitchen.

• The away fixture against the league leaders was postponed by rain.

• The bathroom fixture leaked because the seal around it had failed.

• The club published its full fixture list for the coming season.

Where does fixture come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word goes back to the Latin verb figere, meaning 'to fasten' or 'to drive in', the same root that gives us 'fix' and 'affix'. An older English form, 'fixure', meaning a fixed condition or position, appeared in the late 1500s and drew directly on that Latin sense of something fastened firmly in place. By the early 1600s the spelling shifted to 'fixture', most likely shaped by the pattern of common words such as 'mixture' that already ended in -ture, and that analogy is exactly why the unexpected 'ture' ending traps writers who instinctively want 'fixer' or 'fixshure'. From the literal idea of an object fastened down, the meaning broadened to cover any fitting attached to a building, and in British usage it came to name a sporting event set at a fixed date. The common thread, in every sense, is the notion of something settled and not easily moved.

How the word is built

• fix (from Latin figere: to fasten)
• -ture (noun-forming suffix)