【Clothe】 , the least specific of these terms, means to cover or to provide what will cover (one’s body or whatever is bare) with or as if with garments. The other words convey the same meaning but each one adds to it distinctive implications and connotations.

【Attire】 suggests a more careful process and more formality than 【clothe】 and therefore is avoided except when the context requires that note.

【Dress】 is far less formal than 【attire】 and much richer in its connotations than 【clothe】 . It often suggests care in the choice and arrangement of clothes and sometimes, especially in  【dress】 up, preening and prinking or selection of one’s best or choicest clothes.

【Dress】 up sometimes distinctively implies an assuming of the 【dress】 of or a 【dress】 suitable to another while 【dress】 , especially in its intransitive or reflexive forms, often implies a change of clothes to those that are appropriate for a special occasion; thus, to 【dress】 for dinner implies a change into dinner or evening clothes.

The idea of decking or adorning is frequently associated with 【dress】 especially in its extended senses.

【Apparel】 and 【array】 are chiefly literary words used when there is the intent to connote splendor, elegance, or gorgeousness in what a person or thing is clothed with.

【Robe】 implies a dressing with or as if with a 【robe】 and has the same wide range of use as the noun but it typically suggests the enveloping 【apparel】 worn by a king, queen, or noble on state occasions, by a judge or a professor when the conventions of his office demand it, or by a bishop or other high ecclesiastic when formally but not liturgically attired.

【Clothes】 , 【clothing】 , 【dress】 , 【attire】 , 【apparel】 , 【raiment】 are comparable when they denote a person’s garments considered collectively.

【Clothes】 and 【clothing】 are general words which do not necessarily suggest a wearer or personal owner but sometimes a manufacturer or a merchant.

【Dress】 is used with reference only to a wearer’s outer  【clothes】 ; it is not only far less inclusive than 【clothes】 and  【clothing】 but less concrete in its suggestions except when qualified.

【Attire】 usually stresses the appearance or the total impression produced by one’s  【clothes】 ; it is therefore rarely used with reference to one’s own 【clothes】 except in affectation or humorously; when applied to another person’s, it is as a rule qualified.

【Apparel】  (often specifically wearing 【apparel】 ) carries a weaker suggestion of the effect produced and a stronger implication of a collection or assemblage of 【clothes】 than 【attire】 , which otherwise it closely resembles in meaning; therefore one says an article of 【apparel】 (rather than 【attire】 ) and the richness of her 【attire】 (rather than 【apparel】 ).

【Raiment】 is a more or less literary term that is nearly as comprehensive as 【clothes】 , for it includes everything that is worn for decency, comfort, and adornment and therefore suggests reference to undergarments as well as to outer garments.

When the quality or the texture of the 【clothing】 is to be indicated, 【raiment】 is the appropriate word.