Furniture Meaning
/ˈfɜː.nɪ.t͡ʃə/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounLarge movable item(s), usually in a room, which enhance(s) the room's characteristics, functionally or decoratively.
nounThe harness, trappings etc. of a horse, hawk, or other animal.
Sentence Examples
I got him to help me when I moved the furniture.
The furniture was dusty.
All the furniture is crafted from natural materials.
CEFR Practice Quiz
We need new ____ for the living room, such as a sofa and table.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We decided to buy some modern ____ for the living room to give it a fresh and updated look.
Word Origin & History
From Middle French fourniture (“a supply, or the act of furnishing”), from fournir (“to furnish”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local color) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust […]"
— 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), page 377, column 2:
"She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill."
— 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:
"The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century,[…]."
— 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
"We commend a horse because he is strong and nimble,[…]and not for his furniture: a greyhound for his swiftnesse, not for his collar: a hawke for her wing, not for her cranes or bells."
— 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 42, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
"Amongst the rich this part of a hawk's furniture is ornamented with embroidery, handsome silver aigrettes, tassels and other decorations."
— 1934, George Cameron Stone, A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor, →ISBN:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
We need new ____ for the living room, such as a sofa and table.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We decided to buy some modern ____ for the living room to give it a fresh and updated look.