Studio

How to spell studio

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce studio

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does studio mean?

1. nounA room or building where an artist, photographer, broadcaster, or musician works.
2. nounA small flat or apartment combining the living and sleeping space into a single room.

Studio in a sentence

• The band booked the recording studio for three days.

• The rent on a studio near the station was all he could afford.

• She photographed the wedding portraits in her downtown studio.

• Their first home together was a cramped studio above a bakery.

Where does studio come from?

Language of origin: Italian

This word comes straight from the Italian studio, which meant a 'study' or a 'room for working', and that in turn traces back to the Latin studium, meaning 'zeal', 'eagerness', or 'painstaking application'. The Latin verb studere literally meant 'to be eager about' or 'to apply oneself', so the earliest sense was about mental effort rather than a physical place. In Renaissance Italy the noun came to name the workroom where a painter or sculptor applied that effort, and English borrowed it in the early 1800s specifically for an artist's workshop. From there the meaning broadened to cover the rooms where photographers, broadcasters, and recording engineers work, and eventually a small one-room flat. The same Latin root sits behind the everyday word 'study', which is why the spelling keeps the tell-tale 'stud-' beginning rather than anything phonetic.

How the word is built

• studi- (from Italian studio: study, workroom, ultimately Latin studium 'zeal, application')
• -o (Italian noun ending)