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garment

UK/ˈɡɑːmənt/US/ˈɡɑɹmənt/
nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,161 of 15,258leans writtenformal · an editor’s judgement

Other forms: garments

A garment is the formal word for a single piece of clothing. A shirt, a coat, a dress — any one of them.

Nobody uses it in ordinary conversation, and that is the point: it belongs to the clothing trade, to labels and to care instructions, where a neutral word is needed for anything at all. The garment industry and the garment district are both standard terms. It comes from the same root as garnish, both meaning to equip or furnish. Clothing and clothes are the everyday words.

Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain

Definitions of garment

  1. 1noungarmentA single item of clothing.B1+

    “Wash the garment inside out at thirty degrees.”

Where it comes from

A garment is a defence. Old French garnement came from guarnir, which meant to protect and fortify quite as much as to clothe, and behind that a Frankish verb meaning to ward off.

  1. Old French

    garnement

  2. Middle English

    garment

  3. English, today

    garment

Built from

  • guarnir · Old French — to protect, fortify, clothe, garnish, adorn

From Middle English garment, garement, garnement, from Old French garnement, guarnement, from Old French guarnir, guarnir (“to protect, fortify, clothe, garnish, adorn”), from Frankish warnijan (“to ward off, refuse, deny”). More at English garnish.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Clothes & Fashion, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 33 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

garment in the wild

  • A jumpsuit is a one-piece garment with sleeves and legs and typically without integral coverings for feet, hands or head.

    Jumpsuit

  • Today, however, the garment has found other uses.

    Jumpsuit

  • A tunic is a garment for the torso, usually simple in style, reaching from the shoulders to a length somewhere between the hips and the ankles.

    Tunic

  • The garment is put on by stepping into the leg holes and pulling the garment up to cover the torso.

    Teddy (garment)

  • Clothing industry, or garment industry, refers to the range of trade and industry sectors involved in the production and value chain of clothing and garments.

    Clothing industry

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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.