Suit

How to spell suit

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce suit

What does suit mean?

1. nounA matching set of garments, typically a jacket worn with trousers or a skirt.
2. verbTo be convenient or appropriate for someone, or to look good on them.
3. nounA claim or action brought before a court of law.
4. nounAny of the four sets into which a pack of playing cards is divided.

Suit in a sentence

• noun

  He wore a navy suit to the interview.

• verb

  The new schedule does not suit everyone on the team.

• noun

  The company settled the suit out of court.

• noun

  Hearts are the strongest suit in this round.

• noun

  The tailor pressed her grey wool suit before the wedding.

• verb

  That shade of blue would suit your complexion well.

Where does suit come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes through Old French sieute or suite, meaning a 'following' or a set of things that follow one another, which descended from the Vulgar Latin feminine noun sequita and ultimately from the Latin verb sequi, meaning 'to follow'. The earliest English uses in the 1300s carried this sense of following or attendance, including a retinue of followers and, in law, the act of pursuing a claim, which is why we still speak of a 'lawsuit'. From the idea of things that match and go together came the meaning of a matched set of garments by the 1400s, and the four matching groups of playing cards. The verb sense, 'to be appropriate or to fit', grew from the same notion of one thing following or agreeing with another. The related word 'suite', for a matched set of rooms or furniture, shares the very same root but kept a French spelling and a different pronunciation, which is exactly why the two are so often confused on the page.

How the word is built

• suit (from Old French sieute, ultimately Latin sequi: to follow)