Tailcoat

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Part of a series on
Western dress codes and corresponding attires
Formal (full dress)   White tie  Morning dress  Full dress uniform Frock coat  Evening gown  Ball gown
Semi-formal (half dress)   Black tie  Black lounge suit   Mess dress uniform Evening gown  Cocktail dress
Informal (undress, "dress clothes") Suit  Service dress uniform Cocktail dress  Pantsuit
Casual (anything not above) Business casual Casual Friday Combat uniform Smart casual Workwear Streetwear Sportswear known as Sportswear (fashion) and Athleisure Undress
Supplementary alternatives Ceremonial dress law courts royal courts diplomatic academic, etc. Religious clothing cassock, habit, etc. Folk costume Distinctions Orders medals, etc.
Legend: = Day (before 6 p.m.) = Evening (after 6 p.m.)     = Bow tie colour = Ladies = Gentlemen Fashion portal
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A tailcoat is a knee-length coat characterised by a rear section of the skirt (known as the tails), with the front of the skirt cut away.

The tailcoat shares its historical origins in clothes cut for convenient horse-riding in the Early Modern era. From the 18th century, however, tailcoats evolved into general forms of day and evening formal wear, in parallel to how the lounge suit succeeded the frock coat (19th century) and the justacorps (18th century).

Thus, in 21st-century Western dress codes for men, mainly two types of tailcoats have survived:

1. Dress coat, an evening wear item with a squarely cut-away front, worn for formal white tie
2. Morning coat (or cutaway in American English), a day-wear item with a gradually tapered front cut away, worn for formal morning dress

In colloquial language without further specification, "tailcoat" typically designates the former, that is the evening (1) dress coat for white tie.