Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index A set of standard clothing worn by members of an organisation whilst participating in that organisation's activity. People performing religious activities have often worn standard costumes since the dawn of recorded history. Other early examples of uniforms include the clothing of the armies of the Roman Empire and other civilizations. Modern uniforms are worn by armed forces and other paramilitary organisations such as police, emergency services, security guards, in some workplaces and schools, and by inmates in prisons. One purpose of military uniforms is to clearly distinguish combatants who are protected by the laws of war from other persons carrying weapons, who enjoy no such protection. Another purpose in historical times was to make it difficult for deserterss to avoid detection; military uniforms were so distinctive with many metal buttons and unique colors that they could not be modified into unrecognizable clothing. Prison uniforms often consist of a distinctive orange or yellow jumpsuit or a white and black zebra striped uniform to make escape more difficult. See also School uniform Student uniform Uniform is also the letter U in the NATO phonetic alphabet This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.