costume
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A style of dress, including garments, accessories and hairstyle.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kahstoomSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kɑsˈtum
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.
noun
A style of dress, including garments, accessories and hairstyle, especially as characteristic of a particular country, period or people.
The attire worn in a play or at a fancy dress ball
An outfit or a disguise worn as fancy dress etc.
A set of clothes appropriate for a particular occasion or season.
A swimming costume.
verb
To dress or adorn with a costume or appropriate garb.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A style of dress, including garments, accessories and hairstyle, especially as characteristic of a particular country, period or people.
Used this way, costume is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use costume
- “In spite of the heat he insisted on his woolen costume.”noun
- “He won the prize for best costume.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Someone who designs or supplies costumes (as for a play or masquerade).
A costume worn on formal occasions by the faculty or students of a university or college.
A costume worn as a disguise at a masquerade party.
Tight fitting garment worn for swimming.
Tight fitting garment worn for swimming.
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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.