tuxedo
Americannoun
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Also called dinner jacket. a man's jacket for semiformal evening dress, traditionally of black or dark-blue color and characteristically having satin or grosgrain facing on the lapels.
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the complete semiformal outfit, including this jacket, dark trousers, often with silk stripes down the sides, a bow tie, and usually a cummerbund.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of tuxedo
1890–95, short for Tuxedo coat, after country club at Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
Explanation
Use the noun tuxedo to describe the dressy black suit that many men wear when they get married. It's not prom night without one of these formal jackets for men, which take their name from Tuxedo Park, New York, near New York City. The place name tuxedo, according to one line of etymological inquiry, is from an Algonquian word for "wolf," p'tuksit, while other scholars guess that it simply means "crooked river," p'tuck-sepo. Either way, a tuxedo today can also be called a dinner jacket or even the slangy "monkey suit," just for fun.
Vocabulary lists containing tuxedo
English Words Derived from Indigenous Languages of the Americas
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Aquatic, Waddle, and Plumage: Penguin Parlance
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Prom Time
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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:
Among the pieces available were a vintage chest, tables, and chair, antique mirrors, hand-knotted rugs, a striped fabric tuxedo sofa, upholstered wing back chairs, “lots of fun lamps and chandeliers,” and several leather chairs.
From MarketWatch ● May 18, 2026
Think the Monopoly Man—top hat, tuxedo, dollar sign and all.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
People published photos from their outdoor California ceremony, in which Steinfeld wore a white strapless gown, mesh gloves and her veil and Allen wore a traditional tuxedo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2026
A. On the spectrum from tuxedo to sweats, I’ll be closer to the latter because I’m covering the Oscars ceremony remotely.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
His tuxedo was over the chair he used to sit on when he tied his shoes, and I thought, Weird.
From "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer
Hungry guests in tuxedos filed into a nearby 7-Eleven.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2026
But for grooms, adjusting tuxedos and suits for weight loss is much easier to do.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026
Sequined dresses mix with simple jeans, and tuxedos are sometimes worn with work boots.
From Barron's ● Feb. 17, 2026
Nearly 30 inmates, selected for good behavior, donned tuxedos with pink boutonnieres and waited as daughters, some dressed in formal gowns, were led into the prison’s Bible college transformed into a makeshift dance hall.
From Salon ● Nov. 30, 2025
All of the other dads and escorts are dressed in dark suits and tuxedos, but my father is the most handsome of them all.
From "Like Vanessa" by Tami Charles
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.
