Suite

How to spell suite

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce suite

What does suite mean?

1. nounA set of connected rooms used together, especially in a hotel.
2. nounA matching set of furniture sold or used together.
3. nounA connected set of items forming a whole, such as musical movements or software programs.

Suite in a sentence

• The hotel upgraded the couple to a luxury suite overlooking the harbour.

• They bought a three-piece suite for the living room.

• The orchestra performed a baroque suite of six dances.

• The conference booked an executive suite with a private meeting room.

• The showroom displayed a leather suite with two armchairs and a sofa.

• The office installed a productivity suite that bundles a word processor and a spreadsheet.

Where does suite come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came straight from French, where suite means 'a following' or 'a connected sequence', and it is simply the French development of the older suite, suit and sequi. The ultimate source is the Latin verb sequi, meaning 'to follow', so a suite is literally a set of things that follow on from one another and belong together. English already owned a homegrown spelling of the same French word as 'suit' (a set of matching clothes, or a following of attendants), but in the seventeenth century writers borrowed the French spelling afresh to name a connected set of rooms, and later a set of musical movements or matching furniture. Because it shares the sequi root, suite is a close cousin of 'sequence', 'consecutive', 'pursue' and 'ensue', all of which carry the idea of one thing following another. The French spelling, with its silent French-flavoured ending, is exactly what makes it sound identical to 'sweet' yet look completely different on the page.

How the word is built

• suite (French for a following or sequence, from Latin sequi: to follow)

Words that sound like suite

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• sweet: Having a sugary, pleasant taste, or more generally agreeable and kind.