Word.ws English Dictionary

look the part

look the part verb: to appear suitable for a particular kind of work, position or role.

Verb

look the part (third-person singular simple present looks the part, present participle looking the part, simple past and past participle looked the part)

  1. (idiomatic) To appear suitable for a particular kind of work, position or role.
    • If you want to be a successful business person, you have to look the part.
    • We were going to cast him in our new movie but unfortunately he didn't look the part.

Forms of look the part

third-person singular presentlooks the part
present participlelooking the part
past participlelooked the part
pastlooked the part

Questions about look the part

What does look the part mean?
Look the part means to appear suitable for a particular kind of work, position or role.
What part of speech is look the part?
Look the part is a verb.
What is the past tense of look the part?
The past tense of look the part is looked the part.

Words near look the part in the dictionary

  1. look round
  2. look sharp
  3. look shy
  4. look snappy
  5. look the other way
  6. look the part
  7. look through
  8. look through one's fingers
  9. look through rose-colored glasses
  10. look through rose-tinted glasses
  11. look to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: look the part (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-look the part.ogg.

Cite this entry: “look the part.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/look_the_part. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.