different between healthful vs suitable

English

Alternative forms

• healthfull (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English helthful, helþful, helþeful, equivalent to health +? -ful.

Adjective

healthful (comparative healthfuller or more healthful, superlative healthfullest or most healthful)

1. Beneficial to bodily health.
   • 1906, Princeton Alumni Weekly (volume 7, page 210)

     Hockey is an exciting and healthful form of exercise, well suited to college students […]

2. Conducive to moral or spiritual prosperity; salutary.
   • 1926, Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, Folio Society 2008, p. 30:

     As he had been thinking for months about leaving his wife and had not done it because it would be too cruel to deprive her of himself, her departure was a very healthful shock.

Synonyms

• healthy
• salubrious
• salutary
• wholesome

Usage notes

When a clearer distinction is intended, healthy is used to describe the state of the object, and healthful describes its ability to impart health to the recipient. Vegetables in good condition are both healthy (i.e., not rotten or diseased) and healthful (i.e., they improve the eaters' health, compared to eating junk food). By contrast, a poisonous plant can be healthy, but it is not healthful to eat of.

Derived terms

• healthfully
• healthfulness

Related terms

• heal
• health
• healthy

Translations

English

Etymology

suit +? -able

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?su?t?bl/

Adjective

suitable (comparative more suitable, superlative most suitable)

1. Having sufficient or the required properties for a certain purpose or task; appropriate to a certain occasion.

Synonyms

• fit for purpose (British)
• up to standard (British)

Antonyms

• unsuitable

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• appropriate
• apt
• congruous
• consonant
• corresponding
• eligible
• fit
• meet
• pertinent
• seemly

Further reading

• suitable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• suitable in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• sabulite