appropriate
Forms
- present (v1)
- appropriate
- past (v2)
- appropriated
- past participle (v3)
- appropriated
- present participle
- appropriating
- 3rd person singular
- appropriates
- Comparative
- more appropriate
- Superlative
- most appropriate
Definitions
1.To take to oneself; to claim or use, especially as by an exclusive right.
- Let no man appropriate the use of a common benefit.
2.To set apart for, or assign to, a particular person or use, especially in exclusion of all others; with to or for.
- A spot of ground is appropriated for a garden.
3.To annex (for example a benefice, to a spiritual corporation, as its property).
1.Suitable or fit; proper; felicitous.
- The headmaster wondered what an appropriate measure would be to make the pupil behave better.
2.Suitable to the social situation or to social respect or social discreetness; socially correct; socially discreet; well-mannered; proper.
- While it is not considered appropriate for a professor to date his student, there is no such concern once the semester has ended.
- I don't think it was appropriate for the cashier to tell me out loud in front of all those people at the checkout that my hairpiece looked like it was falling out of place.
3.Of an action or thing: morally good; positive.
- Rescuing animals is an appropriate thing to do.
4.Of an action or thing: pleasant.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1639
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Common
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English appropriaten
From appropriat (“appropriated”) + -en, borrowed from Latin appropriātus, perfect passive participle of appropriō (“to make one's own”)
From ad (“to”) + propriō (“to make one's own”)