en suite

UK/ɒ̃ ˈswiːt/UK/ɒn ˈswiːt/US/ɑn ˈswit/

adverb

So as to form a cohesively themed or matching set.

First used 18th c.

Meanings

adverben suite (not comparable)
  1. not comparableSo as to form a cohesively themed or matching set.First known use 18th c.

    [E]ach room was decorated en suite, with wallpapers and drapery in matching colours.

    2015 April 29, J. Raven, Lost Mansions: Essays on the Destruction of the Country House, Springer, →ISBN
    2 more examples

    The burgonet was decorated en suite, the sides of the bowl embossed with acanthus scrolls flanking a central palmette and with swagged ribbons at the peak and nape, the hinged cheekpieces embossed in the center with a leafy mask with foliate diadem[…]

    1998, Stuart W. Pyhrr, Filippo Negroli, José-A. Godoy, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and His Contemporaries, Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 262

    The grips of these hilts […] were of solid metal which was decorated en suite with the rest of the hilt.

    2012, Ewart Oakeshott, European Weapons and Armour: From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, Boydell Press, →ISBN, page 249
  2. not comparableIn a series of rooms which connect to each other, forming a series or set (later especially with reference to the position of a bathroom).First known use 18th c.

    The three little rooms en suite, with low, smoky ceilings and lit by paraffin lamps, were crammed with people.

    1911, Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes, Penguin Classics, published 2007, page 300
    1 more example

    This architectural type, a small, furnished and ornate feminine aristocratic space dedicated to bathing and dressing, located en suite with bedroom and salon or dining room, and used by the lady of the house to withdraw or to receive private guests for intimate conversation (or more), is the setting for both exclusion and excess[…].

    2016 November 10, Teresa Stoppani, Giorgio Ponzo, George Themistokleous, This Thing Called Theory, Routledge, →ISBN
adjectiveen suite (not comparable)
  1. not comparableComprising a set of connected rooms; (now specifically) pertaining to a bathroom with an adjoining bedroom, or a bedroom with an adjoining bathroom, such that they form part of the same set of connected rooms.First known use 19th c.
  2. not comparableForming part of a cohesively themed or matching set or series.

    The Dress Cap and Under-Sleeves are en suite.

    1858 March, G. Brodie, “Fashions for March”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume XVI, number XCIV, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 576, column 2
nounen suite (plural en suites)

plural en suites

  1. alternativeAlternative form of ensuite.

    He got out of bed and went to wash his hands in the en suite, a small pink-tiled room with a potted plant in the corner and little jars of face cream and perfume everywhere.

    2018, Sally Rooney, “Two Months Later (April 2012)”, in Normal People

Origin

  1. Frenchen suite
  2. Englishen suite

From French en suite.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

en suite. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/en%20suite

MLA

“en suite.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/en%20suite. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “en suite,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/en%20suite.

Source: en suite on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.