[mesmark]

Another usage-meaning question. One of my students asked what's the difference in meaning and usage between 'appropriate' and 'suitable'?

I said 'appropriate' means fitting or correct where 'suitable' means it will do or is acceptable. I think I was a little more elaborate with some examples but I can't remember exactly what I said.

What do you think?

[Whistleblower]

Definition of suitable and appropriate with "Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary":

Suitable: right or appropriate for a purpose or an occasion.

Appropriate: suitable, acceptable or correct in the circumstances.

I believe these are synonyms and the difference is only slight as you can see that suitable is correct for the occassion (short period of time) and appropriate is correct for the circumstances (prolonged period of time).

[musica]

Appropriate has really become overused in Canada in reference to behaviour. Even kids say, "That's not appropriate" I never heard that when I was growing up!
Suitable does not seem to be used in that situation.

[susan53]

I looked it up in the CoBuild dictionary, which I usually trust, and found them explained as synonyms : suitable was defined as "right or appropriate" and appropriate as "correct or suitable". But some of the examples given showed clearly that they're not always synonymous : He was just not suitable for the job; It takes years to turn suitable young men into fighter pilots; ...the appropriate leaflet. In none of these cases can you substitute the other word.
What are we missing?

[etagllothserf@gmail.com]

In my opinion, "appropriate" has attached to it a "correctness", a "rightness", that isn't found when using suitable. The following sentence points this out:
"That high-skirt is suitable for the dance video, but inappropriate for you to wear". Here, you can't really say that the dress is unsuitable for her/him to wear because its suitability is relative to the occasion, and this occasion demands that sort of clothing. However, regardless of the occasion, it is inappropriate to wear the skirt in the sense that there would be a loss of "correctness", a depreciation in respectable value almost.
This is my attempt at lucidly explaining Whistleblower's post, though adding perhaps a bit extra.