Furniture

How to spell furniture

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce furniture

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does furniture mean?

1. nounThe movable articles, such as tables, chairs, and beds, used to make a room or building suitable for living or working.

Furniture in a sentence

• They bought new furniture for the living room after the move.

• The office furniture was delivered a week before the staff arrived.

Where does furniture come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English from the French fourniture, a noun built on the verb fournir, meaning 'to furnish, supply, or provide'. That French verb is itself thought to derive from a Germanic root related to 'frumjan', meaning 'to accomplish or carry out'. When the word arrived in English in the 1500s, it first carried the broad sense of 'the act of furnishing' or 'equipment and provisions of any kind', before narrowing to the movable articles, such as tables and chairs, that fit out a room. The same fournir root still lives inside the verb 'furnish', which is a useful memory anchor: furnish keeps the 'i' that furniture preserves in its second syllable. The spelling trap is exactly that middle vowel, an unstressed schwa that tempts writers toward 'furnature', when the spelling actually follows furnish plus -ure.

How the word is built

• furnit- (from furnish, to provide or fit out)
• -ure (noun-forming suffix denoting a result or collection)