apparel
Americannoun
-
clothing, especially outerwear; garments; attire; raiment.
-
anything that decorates or covers.
-
superficial appearance; aspect; guise.
-
Nautical. the masts, sails, anchor, etc., used to equip a vessel.
-
Ecclesiastical. a piece of embroidery, usually oblong, on certain vestments, especially on the alb or amice.
verb (used with object)
-
apparels,
present (3rd person singular)
-
appareled,
past participle, past
-
apparelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
appareling,
present participle
-
apparelling
present participle (especially British)
noun
-
something that covers or adorns, esp outer garments or clothing
-
nautical a vessel's gear and equipment
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
apparelsimple
-
apparelssimple
-
have appareledperfect
-
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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Words for Carolers
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Let's Go Caroling, List 1
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
The businesses she’s seen rely on MCAs run the gamut of industries from construction to apparel and tend to be very small, with no more than a few employees, she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
Apollo partnered with PGA Tour golfer Patrick Cantlay, putting its name and its insurer Athene on his apparel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
Machinery, footwear and apparel were manufacturing hub Vietnam's major exports to the EFTA.
From Barron's ● Oct. 18, 2026
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
However, to please her, I allowed Sophie to apparel her in one of her short, full muslin frocks.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
The Clean Clothes Campaign said it was braced for further cases of union suppression across the apparels industry.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 16, 2020
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
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
"All thinges perteyninge to the same" here includes the vestments for the assistants, and the stoles, maniples, and apparels.
It is confined at the waist by a girdle, and, when employed in the Eucharist, it is often, though not necessarily, ornamented with patches of embroidery called apparels.
From The Church Handy Dictionary by Anonymous
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
The gentle government agent sits on the platform, and in front of the rostrum is the splendidly appareled chief mudiliyar, to interpret between auctioneer and buyers.
From East of Suez Ceylon, India, China and Japan by Frederic Courtland Penfield
The girl in the tonneau, barricaded with a huge trunk and several bags, besides a huge leather hat-box perched beside the chauffeur, was very gaily appareled as well.
From Ruth Fielding At College or The Missing Examination Papers by Alice B. Emerson
First of all was Columbus, richly appareled, with the banner of Spain in his hand.
From A Treasury of Heroes and Heroines A Record of High Endeavour and Strange Adventure from 500 B.C. to 1920 A.D. by Clayton Edwards
At the front stood the three whom I had supposed to be priests at the amphitheatre, and with them was a man very aged and white haired, but erect and gorgeously appareled.
From The Portal of Dreams by Charles Neville Buck
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
It has been described as a "noble bird, gorgeously apparelled."
From An Australian Bird Book A Pocket Book for Field Use by John Albert Leach
And they were succeeded by eighty women magnificently apparelled, borne on palanquins with golden feet, and five hundred borne on palanquins with silver feet.
From The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athen?us by Athen?us
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
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
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
Elsie went out to buy a gift for Jacqueline, a bit of fine apparelling which she had coveted from the moment she knew Jacqueline should be a bride.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 35, September, 1860 by Various
The kind doctor was still by during the apparelling, or the attempt at it.
From Rattlin the Reefer by Frederick Marryat
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
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
"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
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
