costume
Americannoun
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costumes
plural
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a style of dress, including accessories and hairdos, especially that peculiar to a nation, region, group, or historical period.
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dress or garb characteristic of another period, place, person, etc., as worn on the stage or at balls.
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fashion of dress appropriate to a particular occasion or season.
dancing costume; winter costume.
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a set of garments, especially women's garments, selected for wear at a single time; outfit; ensemble.
verb (used with object)
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costumes,
present (3rd person singular)
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costumed,
past participle, past
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costuming
present participle
adjective
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of or characterized by the wearing of costumes.
a costume party.
-
meant for use with or appropriate to a specific costume.
costume accessories.
noun
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a complete style of dressing, including all the clothes, accessories, etc, worn at one time, as in a particular country or period; dress
national costume
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old-fashioned a woman's suit
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a set of clothes, esp unusual or period clothes, worn in a play by an actor or at a fancy dress ball
a jester's costume
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short for swimming costume
verb
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to furnish the costumes for (a show, film, etc)
-
to dress (someone) in a costume
Synonym Usage
See dress.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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costumesimple
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costumessimple
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have costumedperfect
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has costumedperfect
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am costumingprogressive
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are costumingprogressive
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is costumingprogressive
-
have been costumingperfect progressive
-
has been costumingperfect progressive
Past
-
costumedsimple
-
had costumedperfect
-
was costumingprogressive
-
were costumingprogressive
-
had been costumingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of costume
1705–15; < French < Italian: usage, habit, dress; doublet of custom
Explanation
A costume is a set of clothes you wear when you want to dress up like another person. You might wear a witch's costume to go trick-or-treating on Halloween, or put on a George Washington costume to reenact a scene from the American Revolution in a play. A costume is a set of clothes that is unique to a particular person or time period. If you were starring as Dorothy in your neighborhood production of The Wizard of Oz, your costume would consist of a blue-and-white checkered dress and ruby slippers. On the other hand, if you were starring as Lady Godiva, you wouldn't need much of a costume at all!
Vocabulary lists containing costume
Party Parlance for Mardi Gras
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October Words
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Reading: Literature - Drama - Introductory
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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:
Lawmakers said their review of unredacted files showed it was the same woman Epstein had directed to buy a Snow White costume weeks earlier.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Others zoom in on parts of the costume and post conspiracy theories about Mike Myers, who played the character in the 2003 film, being trapped inside.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
I often go in costume, now with my 9-year-old daughter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
Its current incarnation is a student in a big red bear costume performing at sporting games.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026
She eventually decided on a filagree headdress she would wear atop a turban —and a long strand of hand-carved carnelian beads, not necessarily for the costume.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
In recent days, depending largely on what your algorithm serves up, you may be seeing nearly as many people in Cat in the Hat costumes dancing to Beyonce as those stalking the streets.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
And if costumes help you pretend you’re someone else, your own clothes and accessories help you to become yourself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Marco Piemontese’s striking period costumes conjured the artists’ milieu, and Marcus Doshi’s lighting evoked both festivity and the tragedy of the ending.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
This was a one-man show performed in two costumes.
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2026
A handful of kids dressed up today, but most kids just wore normal clothes, or those don’t-actually-count costumes like baseball jerseys.
From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller
His signature victory was a record-setting blister up Alpe d’Huez in which he roared through costumed, enthusiastic revelers on his way to a fifth stage win.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
The dancers, costumed in their Saturday evening black-and-white vintage best, added to the parading splendor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2026
Given the group’s commitment to costumed stage personas, the mixed sexuality of their members, and their name, the Village People came to represent the confluence of masculinity and queerness.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
But TV had never seen anything quite like the Krofft shows, with its Day-Glo aesthetic, crazy conceptions and combination of puppets, costume puppets and costumed human characters into a half-hour comedy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026
He costumed the actors in green plastic trash bags.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
I’ve always been forward with costuming and theatrics, but it’s been cool seeing what Fabi’s been creating for our visuals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
They didn’t get to figure out staging, costuming and what made a good Beatle setlist.
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2026
Swift says the goal of the Eras tour was to "over-serve" in terms of the number of songs performed, the extravagance of the costuming, and the details of each set design.
From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2025
By “my company will change directions,” Whitten is referring to his sexuality, a personal struggle he details explicitly in a poetry collection called “Save Me,” self-published in 1983 while still on a break from costuming.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2025
Detective work seemed to me to be two parts costuming and one part luck.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
Definitions 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.
