Meaning & use
station
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Meanings
nouncountable
A place with platforms or stops where trains, buses or other vehicles regularly halt for passengers to get on and off.
Grammar: Often with a type word: train station, bus station.
Patterns
- the station at somewhere
- go to the station
We met at the station twenty minutes before the train.
The bus station is across from the market.
She walked from the station to her office.
nouncountable
A building or base used for a particular service or job, such as police, fire or research work.
Grammar: Used with a service word: police station, fire station.
Patterns
- a police station
- a research station
The lost wallet was handed in at the police station.
Scientists spent the winter at a remote research station.
The fire station is on Elm Street.
nouncountable
A radio or television channel, or the company that broadcasts it.
Grammar: Often with radio or TV: a local radio station.
Patterns
- listen to a station
- a radio station
She tuned the radio to her favorite station.
The local TV station covered the parade.
nouncountable or uncountableformalold-fashioned
A person's position in society, usually in an old-fashioned or formal sense.
Grammar: Often with a possessive: a woman of low station.
Patterns
- above your station
- one's station in life
The novel shows how station decided who could marry whom.
He felt a servant should not speak above his station.
verbtransitive
To put someone or something in a particular place for a job or duty.
Grammar: Usually passive: troops were stationed abroad.
Patterns
- station someone at somewhere
- be stationed in somewhere
The guards were stationed at the gate.
The navy stationed two ships near the port.
Word forms
| plural | stations |
|---|---|
| third person singular (verb) | stations |
| past tense (verb) | stationed |
| past participle (verb) | stationed |
| -ing form (verb) | stationing |
Common combinations
- train station
- The train station is a ten-minute walk away.
- police station
- He reported the theft at the police station.
- radio station
- The radio station plays jazz at night.
- gas station
- We stopped at a gas station to fill the tank.
- space station
- Astronauts live aboard the space station.
- above your station
- She was told not to rise above her station.
Synonyms and how they differ
- terminal
- Terminal usually means the end point of a route, as at an airport, while station can be a stop anywhere.
- depot
- Depot suggests a bus or storage base, often with less passenger use.
- channel
- Channel is a particular broadcast stream, while station is the broadcaster.
- rank
- Rank means position in a hierarchy, whereas station suggests a place fixed by birth in a class system.
Word family
- stationary adjective
- not moving
- stationed adjective
- sent to work at a location
- substation noun
- a smaller station, such as for electricity
- stationmaster noun
- the person in charge of a railway station
Commonly confused: station or stationery? station or stationary?
station vs stationery
Stationery means paper, pens and office supplies and is spelled with -ery.
station vs stationary
Stationary means not moving; a station is a place.
Practice
Which meaning of station is used in 'a woman of high station'?
Choose one answer.
Here station means a person's rank in society. The others are different senses, which would not describe a woman as high.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “station”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.