apparel
Americannoun
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clothing, especially outerwear; garments; attire; raiment.
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anything that decorates or covers.
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superficial appearance; aspect; guise.
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Nautical. the masts, sails, anchor, etc., used to equip a vessel.
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Ecclesiastical. a piece of embroidery, usually oblong, on certain vestments, especially on the alb or amice.
verb (used with object)
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apparels,
present (3rd person singular)
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appareled,
past participle, past
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apparelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
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appareling,
present participle
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apparelling
present participle (especially British)
noun
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something that covers or adorns, esp outer garments or clothing
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nautical a vessel's gear and equipment
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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apparelsimple
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apparelssimple
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have appareledperfect
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have apparelledperfect
-
has appareledperfect
-
has apparelledperfect
-
am apparelingprogressive
-
am apparellingprogressive
-
are apparelingprogressive
-
are apparellingprogressive
-
is apparelingprogressive
-
is apparellingprogressive
-
have been apparelingperfect progressive
-
have been apparellingperfect progressive
-
has been apparelingperfect progressive
-
has been apparellingperfect progressive
Past
-
appareledsimple
-
apparelledsimple
-
had appareledperfect
-
had apparelledperfect
-
was apparelingprogressive
-
was apparellingprogressive
-
were apparelingprogressive
-
were apparellingprogressive
-
had been apparelingperfect progressive
-
had been apparellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of apparel
1200–50; Middle English appareillen < Old French apareillier to make fit, fit out < Vulgar Latin *appariculāre, equivalent to ap- ap- 1 + *paricul ( us ) a fit ( see par 1 -cule 1) + -ā- thematic vowel + -re infinitive suffix
Explanation
Apparel is just another word for what you wear. Hopefully the apparel you wear to work — suits and heels — is very different from the apparel you wear on the weekends — pajama pants and bunny slippers. The noun apparel got its start from the Latin apparare, meaning to “prepare, make ready,” or ad-particulare, meaning “to put things together.” In the mid 13th century it evolved into a verb meaning “to equip.” It wasn’t until the next century that people began to use apparel as both a verb meaning “to attire” and as a noun meaning garments or clothing. Said 17th century British writer Thomas Fuller, “…Apparel shapes: but it's money that finishes the man.”
Vocabulary lists containing apparel
Christmas Carol Vocab: A Lyrical Lexicon
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Words for Carolers
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Let's Go Caroling, List 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He said many portfolio managers would prefer to own Nvidia headed into 2027 rather than the athletic apparel company that’s struggling to engineer a turnaround.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Employment losses can also be more pronounced in labor-intensive industries such as textiles and apparel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Food supply chains, motor vehicles and parts, household furnishings, apparel, recreational goods and some nondurable goods are among the categories most likely to experience “meaningful spillovers” from higher diesel prices, they said.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
"It's not the future and it's not the current and that is what drives apparel sales today."
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
“One bedroom above an apparel shop,” said Alvin Hooks.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
It is also adding to fears among labour rights campaigners that Covid-19 is providing cover for an industry-wide suppression of workers’ voices across the apparels industry.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 16, 2020
The Clean Clothes Campaign said it was braced for further cases of union suppression across the apparels industry.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 16, 2020
India unit and Mandhana Industries Ltd., an Indian maker of apparels with 5,000 employees in Mumbai and Bangalore, will give workers the option of taking the afternoon off.
From BusinessWeek ● Mar. 30, 2011
There is continual mention in the records of those times of offerings of embroideries and other Church apparels.
From Needlework As Art by Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess Alford
The Alb is often trimmed handsomely with lace, the apparels are stitched on to the front.
From Chats on Old Lace and Needlework by Emily Leigh Lowes
In contrast to the usual portrayals, Barbara Flynn’s matronly Mary is as confident and imperious as her cousin, if not nearly as well appareled.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2018
You with the bean that I gave when we quarreled, I with your marble of Saturday last, Honored and old and all gaily appareled, Here we shall meet and remember the past.
From A Child's Garden of Verses by E. (Ethel) Mars
Except John Danusco, all the rest came with him from Peru: and every one of them brought fourteen or fifteen thousand ducats: all of them went well and costly appareled.
From A Narrative of the expedition of Hernando de Soto into Florida published at Evora in 1557 by A Gentleman of Elvas [pseud.]
Then by that happy, blissful day, More peaceful pilgrims I shall see, That have cast off their rags of clay, And walk appareled fresh like me.
From Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul by James Mudge
The king’s three officers enter, richly appareled, their figures showing in strong relief against the red sky.
From Jeremiah A Drama in Nine Scenes by Stefan Zweig
As a child, his world had been "apparelled in celestial light," but no longer.
From Salon ● Dec. 25, 2021
The veteran Robert Warwick is properly apparelled and deep-voiced as Chandler.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the middle of it there was a green silk canopy borne on four spears by four knights gorgeously apparelled.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
His companion and fellow-prisoner, who was apparelled and mounted in a similar manner, was the seditious and mischievous Provost Jacob of Lund.
From The Childhood of King Erik Menved An Historical Romance by Bernhard Severin Ingemann
When they had eaten their full, the Prince commanded the watch that, without fail, all men should be roused and apparelled before the breaking of the day.
From Aucassin & Nicolette And Other Mediaeval Romances and Legends by Eugene Mason
Wordsworth idealized newborns, who he said entered life “trailing clouds of glory” and appareling all they saw in “celestial light.”
From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2013
The day came at last, and at ten Mrs. Dillingham entered the grand drawing-room in her queenly appareling.
From Sevenoaks by J. G. (Josiah Gilbert) Holland
For as Apollo each eve doth devise A new appareling for western skies; So every eve, nay every spendthrift hour Shed balmy consciousness within that bower.
From Endymion A Poetic Romance by John Keats
Pale and hard the face rose from this somber and gorgeous appareling.
From The Secret of Lonesome Cove by Samuel Hopkins Adams
Jeannie's maid must have been a first-rate hand at throwing, if by that simple process she produced in a quarter of an hour that exquisite and finished piece of apparelling which appeared at half-past eight.
From Daisy's Aunt by E. F. (Edward Frederic) Benson
"It is time that I were attending to my own apparelling, which, in looking at thee, I quite forgot," said the widow, rising, and leaving the apartment.
From The Knight of the Golden Melice A Historical Romance by John Turvill Adams
The kind doctor was still by during the apparelling, or the attempt at it.
From Rattlin the Reefer by Frederick Marryat
But Wat, dear Wat, will you not put off your gay apparelling and take a night at the cartes with us at home.
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
Then, having finished apparelling us and still chuckling, the two touched our arms and led us out, into a room whose circular sides were ringed with soft divans.
From The Moon Pool by Abraham Merritt
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