strong suit
30
4.4
- noun
- Informal
:
punto fuerte
- Numbers were never my strong suit.
- never my strong suit
- exactly my strong suit
- really my strong suit
You know, so I think it's you just recognize, understand people's strong suits and adjust accordingly.
- You know, so I think it's you just recognize, understand people's strong suits and adjust accordingly.
- Like special effects makeup is not my strong suit.
- It's, you know, horsepower was not this car's strong suit.
- So rather than try to rely on restraint, which is not my strong suit, I just don't allow myself to snowboard anymore.
- These things on this list are not exactly a narcissistic personality's strong suits.
- Seeking help isn't their strong suit due to the distrust of others, making it tough for them to address their own issues.
- Most writers have strong suits and and suits that aren't as strong.
- That was never my strong suit and one of my skills.
- You joked about school, you know, full well, school was not my my strong suit.
- He requires a lot of patience and that's something I think I have a strong suit of.
Examples
-
But then reading has never been your strong suit, has it?
Blog text (16) -
Science was never my strong suit, but the principle is easy enough.
-
It's it's not my strong suit and I forced myself through it.
-
Playing it cool is not my strong suit, but I cannot blow this.
-
I think my strong suit is just being able to figure stuff out.
Blog text (16) -
Branding was never my strong suit.
-
Yeah, but making friends isn't his strong suit.
-
Math was never my strong suit, and contract negotiations rank low as well.
Blog text (6) -
Identification of flora and fauna is not my strong suit.
Fiction book (2000) -
Math was never my strong suit, so I struggled in that subject.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Skill or power to do something
∞
1.0
Ability to do something well because of practice or training
336
2.8
A skill or quality someone has that helps them do well
205
4.3
An area of work or study that someone knows a lot about
52
6.1
Great skill in an activity like music or sport, often after practice
42
4.2
A natural talent for learning or doing something well
22
5.7
A skill or activity someone is very good at
19
3.4
Something a person does very well
1
9.9
A type of work or skill someone does best
A thing a person or team does especially well
A skill or area where a person is very good
High skill or knowledge in a specific area
Antonyms
How Good
- Informal
30
4.4
69
4.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
strong + suit
The sense 'area of strength' is a metaphorical extension from the card-game sense of 'suit' rather than a direct compositional meaning of 'strong' + 'suit', so a B1 learner who only knows the basic senses of the words would not reliably infer it. Because 'suit' has several unrelated senses (clothing, legal action, card suit) and the idiomatic reading depends on cultural knowledge of card metaphors or prior exposure, the expression is partially but not fully predictable.
Etymology
Strong suit comes from old card games. In those games, a player who had many high cards in one suit held the 'strong' part of their hand, so strong suit now means a person's main 'skill' or 'strength'.