clothe
verb
Simple meaning
To cover or invest, as if with a garment.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
klohthIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkloʊð
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To adorn or cover with clothing; to dress; to supply clothes or clothing.
“The mountain was clothed in tropical trees.”
figurative
To cover or invest, as if with a garment.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To adorn or cover with clothing; to dress; to supply clothes or clothing.
Used this way, clothe is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The mountain was clothed in tropical trees.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “clothe in …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: clothe in …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Clothing in general.
Wearing or provided with clothing.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A dryer that dries clothes wet from washing.
A dryer that dries clothes wet from washing.
A hamper that holds dirty clothes to be washed or wet clothes to be dried.
A hanger that is shaped like a person's shoulders and used to hang garments on.
Any of several small yellowish or buff-colored moths whose larvae eat organic matter e.g. woolens.
Wood or plastic fastener.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A store where men's clothes are sold.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to adorn or cover with clothing
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.