Suitable

How to spell suitable

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce suitable

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does suitable mean?

1. adjectiveRight or appropriate for a particular person, purpose, or occasion.

Suitable in a sentence

• The committee struggled to find a suitable candidate for the role.

• These shoes are not really suitable for a long mountain hike.

Where does suitable come from?

Language of origin: French

The word is built on 'suit', which came into English in the 1300s from the Old French 'suite', meaning a following or a set of things that go together, and ultimately from the Latin verb 'sequi', meaning 'to follow'. The original idea was of things that follow on from or match one another, which is why a 'suit' of clothes or cards is a matching set. To this base English added the productive ending '-able', meaning 'fit for' or 'capable of', to form an adjective describing something that fits the purpose at hand. The word emerged in the 1580s with the sense of 'matching' or 'fitting', and the modern meaning of 'appropriate' grew naturally from that. The same Latin root 'sequi' lurks in relatives such as 'sequence', 'consequence', and 'pursue', and the spelling trap is simply that the silent 'e' of 'suit' is dropped before '-able'.

How the word is built

• suit (to match or fit)
• -able (capable of, fit for)