suitable

UK[ˈsjuː.tə.bɫ̩]US[ˈsju.tə.bɫ̩]

adjectiveB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #3,814 of 15,258leans written

Suitable means right for the particular purpose or occasion. Suitable clothing, suitable for children, a suitable candidate.

It is judged against a purpose rather than in itself: suitable for the weather, suitable for the job, suitable for vegetarians. Not suitable is a common polite rejection that says nothing about quality. Note the film classifications, where suitable for all is a legal category; and that suitable takes for before a purpose and to before a role — suitable for the task, suited to the role.

Definitions of suitable

1adjectivesuitableRight for the particular purpose or occasion.B1+
“Those shoes aren't suitable for a long walk in the mountains.”
synonyms: appropriate, fitting

suitable is a quality of fitness for purpose.

Also accepted in games: appropriate

Where it comes from

Middle English
sute
English
suit
English, today
suitable

From suit + -able. suit comes from Middle English sute. Cognate with Italian seguire and Spanish seguir. Related to sue and segue.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Adjectives

Practise this word

suitable in the wild

Stiff-blade knives, typically 1 mm or.040" thick, are suitable for scraping.
Putty knife
Flexible-blade knives, typically 0.5 mm or.020" thick, are suitable for spreading.
Putty knife
Rupa Mehra's efforts to arrange the marriage of her younger daughter, Lata, to a "suitable boy".
A Suitable Boy
The Sequence Ontology (SO) is an ontology suitable for describing biological sequences.
Sequence Ontology
The right to sit, also known as suitable seating, refers to laws or policies granting workers the right to be given seating at the workplace.
Right to sit

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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.

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