appropriate

Fetched 2026-10-28 (live).

Synonyms: inappropriate, expropriate, appropriated, appropriacy, opprobriate, appropriator, reappropriate, appropriable, appropriative, impropriate, appropriates

Antonyms: inappropriate, expropriate, appropriated, appropriacy, opprobriate, appropriator, reappropriate, appropriable, appropriative, impropriate, appropriates

Related words from Datamuse; suggestions, not definitions.

Verb

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.
   • to appropriate money for the increase of the navy
3. To annex (for example a benefice, to a spiritual corporation, as its property).
4. To make suitable to; to suit.

Adjective

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.
   • 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.
   • While it is not considered appropriate for a professor to date his student, there is no such concern once the semester has ended.
3. Set apart for a particular use or person; reserved.
4. Of an action or thing: morally good; positive.
   • Rescuing animals is an appropriate thing to do.
5. Of an action or thing: pleasant.

Source: Wiktionary · CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wiktionary) · cached copy, not a rewrite.