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suite

[sweet or for 3 often, soot]
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noun
  1. a number of things forming a series or set.
  2. a connected series of rooms to be used together: a hotel suite.
  3. a set of furniture, especially a set comprising the basic furniture necessary for one room: a bedroom suite.
  4. a company of followers or attendants; a train or retinue.
  5. Music.
    1. an ordered series of instrumental dances, in the same or related keys, commonly preceded by a prelude.
    2. an ordered series of instrumental movements of any character.
  6. Computers. a group of software programs sold as a unit and usually designed to work together.
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Origin of suite

1665–75; < French, apparently metathetic variant of Old French siute (see suit); akin to sue, suitor
Can be confusedsuit suitesuite sweet
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

apartment, rental, collection, lodging, body, flat, set, group, parcel, series, batch, tenement, lot, array, court, cortege, retinue, faculty, escort

Examples from the Web for suite

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British Dictionary definitions for suite

suite

noun
  1. a series of items intended to be used together; set
  2. a number of connected rooms in a hotel forming one living unitthe presidential suite
  3. a matching set of furniture, esp of two armchairs and a settee
  4. a number of attendants or followers
  5. music
    1. an instrumental composition consisting of several movements in the same key based on or derived from dance rhythms, esp in the baroque period
    2. an instrumental composition in several movements less closely connected than a sonata
    3. a piece of music containing movements based on or extracted from music already used in an opera, ballet, play, etc
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Word Origin

C17: from French, from Old French sieute; see suit
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for suite

n.

1670s, "train of followers or attendants," from French suite, from Old French suite "act of following, attendance" (see suit). The meanings "set of instrumental compositions" (1680s), "connected set of rooms" (1716), and "set of furniture" (1805) were borrowed from French or re-spelled from suit on the French model.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
suite in Culture

suite

[(sweet)]

A group of related pieces of music or movements played in sequence. In the baroque era, a suite was a succession of different kinds of dances. In more recent times, suites have contained excerpts from longer works, such as ballets, or have simply portrayed a scene, as in Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite.

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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.