# Do Americans use the word Configure? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 11, 2003, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-use-the-word-configure/160493 "2003-03-11T05:54:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-use-the-word-configure/160493/21 "2003-03-11T14:51:42Z")
I’d be a little bit trepidacious about using the Cambridge Dictionary of American English. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-use-the-word-configure/160493/22 "2003-03-11T14:52:05Z")
Ironically, we Americans spell it _ **configour** _. ## Peace. “This is an instance of subliminable humor.” ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-use-the-word-configure/160493/23 "2003-03-11T14:57:02Z")
😃 Please, for the amoriciousness of all that is holificacious, cessecate this execrcision of hilarificacity! ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-use-the-word-configure/160493/24 "2003-03-11T19:11:44Z")
I looked in my _Thorndike Barnhart Comprehensive Desk Dictionary_, 1951 edition, Garden City, NY. It has “configuration” but not “configure”. (A good sized hardcover dictionary.) Next: _The New Merriam-Webster Pocket Dictionary_, missing copyright page, appears to be c1970. Same result. Hmmm. ---
**Author:** ![Fang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/96bed5/32.png) [@Fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fang)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-use-the-word-configure/160493/25 "2003-03-11T20:42:39Z")
I am using the word “configure” in a sentence. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-use-the-word-configure/160493/26 "2003-03-11T21:38:31Z")
[It’s a perfectly cromulent word.](http://www.snpp.com/episodes/3F13.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2003, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-use-the-word-configure/160493/27 "2003-03-11T22:49:48Z")
**Samboy** -I guess you don’t watch much “Star Trek: Voyager” down under. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![samboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@samboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samboy)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-use-the-word-configure/160493/28 "2003-03-12T05:32:21Z")
OK, I am conceedful it’s been provenised that configure is in high usation in America. And for those of you who don’t hold the Cambridge DoAE in high regard, I did have an even more reputable source, the Microsoft Word 97 spell checker dictionary! ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-use-the-word-configure/160493/29 "2003-03-12T05:43:45Z")
Personally, I can’t think of a reason in the world why I would use the word “configure”. I know it is a word, I know what it means, but it just is not something that comes up in normal life experiences. [ul]☹ [sup] **Waiter, I didn’t want my hamburger configured this way.** [/sup][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-use-the-word-configure/160493/30 "2003-03-12T08:23:22Z")
> [@](#): > > There’s a couple more of these “-ar” or “-or” words whose noun forms preceded their verb forms, but they escape me at the mo. I can give you an -er form that worked that way. “Laser” is an acronym, for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”, but it’s led to the back-formation “to lase”, meaning “to amplify light by stimulated emission of radiation”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-americans-use-the-word-configure/160493.md?page=1)