suite

suite

noun \ˈswēt, 2d is also ˈsüt\

Definition of SUITE

1

: retinue; especially : the personal staff accompanying a ruler, diplomat, or dignitary on official business

2

: a group of things forming a unit or constituting a collection : set: as

a : a group of rooms occupied as a unit

b (1) : a 17th and 18th century instrumental musical form consisting of a series of dances in the same or related keys (2) : a modern instrumental composition in several movements of different character (3) : a long orchestral concert arrangement in suite form of material drawn from a longer work (as a ballet)

c : a collection of minerals or rocks having some characteristic in common (as type or origin)

d : a set of matched furniture

e : a set of computer programs designed to work together and usually sold as a single unit

Examples of SUITE

1. a suite of offices on the fifth floor
2. The executive suite is on the top floor.
3. She checked into a suite.
4. We stayed in the hotel's honeymoon suite.
5. The orchestra will be performing a suite.

Origin of SUITE

French, from Old French siute, suite — more at suit

First Known Use: 1673

Related to SUITE

Synonyms

entourage, following, posse, retinue, cortege, tail, train

Related Words

crew, personnel, staff; court; assistant, attendant, helper, retainer

Near Antonyms

entity, item, single, unit

Other Furniture and Woodworking Terms

appoint, credenza, mission, settee

Rhymes with SUITE

beat, beet, bleat, cheat, cleat, Crete, deet, eat, feat, fleet, Geat, gleet, greet, heat, lied, meat, meet, mete, neat, peat, pleat, seat, sheet, skeet, sleet, street, sweet, teat, treat, tweet, weet, wheat

suite

noun \ˈswēt\   (Medical Dictionary)

Medical Definition of SUITE

: a group of rooms in a medical facility dedicated to a specified function or specialty <a surgical suite>

suite

noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

Set of instrumental dances or dancelike movements. The suite originated in the paired dances of the 14th–16th centuries (pavane-galliard, basse danse-saltarello, etc.). In the 16th–17th centuries German composers began to write sets of three or four dances, as in Johann Hermann Schein's Banchetto musicale (1617). In the late 17th century a basic ordering of four dances—allemande, courante, sarabande, and gigue—became established as standard; other dances came to be interpolated between the sarabande and gigue. In the 19th century suite came to refer to sets of instrumental excerpts from operas and ballets.