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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

costume.

A style of dress, including garments, accessories and hairstyle, especially as characteristic of a particular country, period or people.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈkɒs.tjuːm/UK/ˈkɒs.t͡ʃuːm/UK/ˈkɑsˌt(j)um/General-American/ˈkɑsˌt͡ʃum/General-American
  1. A style of dress, including garments, accessories and hairstyle, especially as characteristic of a particular country, period or people.

    countable · uncountable
  2. An outfit or a disguise worn as fancy dress etc.

    countable · uncountable
    We wore gorilla costumes to the party.
  3. A set of clothes appropriate for a particular occasion or season.

    countable · uncountable
    The bride wore a grey going-away costume.
  4. A swimming costume.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French costume, from Italian costume, from Latin consuētūdō (“custom, habit”). Doublet of consuetude, custom, and kastom. Verb circa 1802, perhaps modelled on French costumer.

verb/ˈkɒs.tjuːm/UK/ˈkɒs.t͡ʃuːm/UK/kɑsˈt(j)um/General-American/kɑsˈt͡ʃum/General-American
  1. To dress or adorn with a costume or appropriate garb.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French costume, from Italian costume, from Latin consuētūdō (“custom, habit”). Doublet of consuetude, custom, and kastom. Verb circa 1802, perhaps modelled on French costumer.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.