stipendiary: meaning, definition, pronunciation and examples

No. In England and Wales, a Justice of the Peace (JP) is usually a lay, unpaid volunteer. A stipendiary magistrate (now more commonly called a District Judge) is a legally qualified, full-time, paid professional.

It is technically correct but highly unusual and stylistically marked. The term is best reserved for formal, often public or ecclesiastical, appointments where the fixed, regular nature of the payment (stipend) is a defining characteristic of the role.

A stipend is typically a fixed sum paid regularly to support a person, often in a training, educational, or specific service role (e.g., intern, curate, research fellow). It may not be directly tied to hours worked or market rates. A salary is regular payment for employment, usually calculated on an annual basis and implying a formal employer-employee relationship.

It can refer to both. It primarily denotes the person who receives a stipend (e.g., 'He is a stipendiary'), but by extension, it describes the position itself (e.g., 'a stipendiary post').

Receiving a stipend.

Stipendiary is usually formal, legal, academic, ecclesiastical in register.

Stipendiary: in British English it is pronounced /staɪˈpɛndɪəri/, and in American English it is pronounced /staɪˈpɛndiˌɛri/. Tap the audio buttons above to hear it.