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attire

UK/əˈtaɪɚ/US/əˈtaɪɚ/
nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,908 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: attires

Attire is clothing of a particular style or for a particular occasion. Formal attire, in full attire, appropriate attire.

It appears almost entirely on invitations and dress codes, where attire is the word that tells you what to wear without saying so plainly. Nobody uses it about the clothes they put on to go to the shops.

Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain

Definitions of attire

  1. 1nounattireClothing of a particular style or for a particular occasion.C1

    “The judge looked strange in such old-fashioned attire, with his long wig and robes.”

attire is a clothing.

Where it comes from

Old French atirier means to equip or put in order.

  1. Old French

    atirier — to equip

  2. Middle English

    atyren

  3. English, today

    attire

Built from

  • tire · Old French — rank

The verb is from Middle English atyren, atiren, from Old French atirier (“to equip”), from a- + tire (“rank”), akin to {{cog|de|

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

attire in the wild

  • The male lounge suit and female cocktail dress in turn only comes after this level, traditionally associated with informal attire.

    Formal wear

  • Casual wear (or casual attire or clothing) is a Western dress code that is relaxed, occasional, spontaneous and suited for everyday use.

    Casual wear

  • The Aboyne Highland Games, established in 1867, have stipulated this style of attire for female dancers since 1952 for both National and Highland dances.

    Aboyne dress

  • A wreath worn for purpose of attire, is a headdress or headband made of leaves, grasses, flowers or branches.

    Wreath (attire)

  • Many of the ancient textile and attire traditions from Mexico have disappeared over time with climate change being one of the reasons why.

    Textiles of Oaxaca

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the tire family

attiretartan

attire — used about once every 2,254 pages · #6,908 · point at the bar for the others