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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

tailor.

A person who makes, repairs, or alters clothes professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈteɪlɚ/General-American/ˈteɪlə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. A person who makes, repairs, or alters clothes professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.

    He works as a tailor on Swanston Street.
  2. Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix).

    Australia
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Latin tālea Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Late Latin tāliō Old French taillierder. Old French tailleorder. Anglo-Norman taillourbor. Middle English taillour English tailor Inherited from Middle English taillour, from Anglo-Norman taillour, from Old French tailleor, from taillier, from Late Latin tāliō, from Latin tālea (“a cutting”). Doublet of tailleur. Compare typologically German Schneider (akin to English snithe); Macedonian кројач (krojač), Polish krawiec (akin to Proto-Slavic *krojiti).

verb/ˈteɪlɚ/General-American/ˈteɪlə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To make, repair, or alter clothes.

    ambitransitive
    We can tailor that jacket for you if you like.
  2. To make or adapt (something) for a specific need.

    figuratively · transitive
    The website was tailored to the client's needs.
  3. To restrict (something) in order to meet a particular need.

    figuratively · transitive
    a narrowly tailored law
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Latin tālea Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Late Latin tāliō Old French taillierder. Old French tailleorder. Anglo-Norman taillourbor. Middle English taillour English tailor Inherited from Middle English taillour, from Anglo-Norman taillour, from Old French tailleor, from taillier, from Late Latin tāliō, from Latin tālea (“a cutting”). Doublet of tailleur. Compare typologically German Schneider (akin to English snithe); Macedonian кројач (krojač), Polish krawiec (akin to Proto-Slavic *krojiti).

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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.