Statutory

How to spell statutory

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce statutory

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does statutory mean?

1. adjectiveRequired, permitted, or fixed by a written law or statute.

Statutory in a sentence

• Employees are entitled to the statutory minimum wage.

• The company faces a statutory duty to report its accounts each year.

Where does statutory come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on 'statute', which English took in the 1200s from the Old French statut, itself from the Latin statutum, meaning 'a thing that has been set up or decreed'. That noun came from the verb statuere, 'to set up' or 'to establish', which traces back to the very basic Latin verb stare, 'to stand', the same root that gives us 'stable', 'station' and 'status'. The adjective 'statutory' was assembled in English in the 1700s by adding the suffix -ory, meaning 'relating to', so it literally describes anything fixed or required by statute, that is, by written law. The underlying image is of something made to stand firm in law, which is a useful way to remember the 't-u-t' core: a sta-TUTE that has been set standing. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle, since the '-utory' ending sounds like a vague 'uh-tree' or 'uh-tor-ee' and tempts writers into wrong vowels.

How the word is built

• statut- (from Latin statutum: a thing set up, a decree)
• -ory (adjective suffix meaning 'relating to')