Summary of Significant Accounting Policies - Additional Information (Detail)	12 Months Ended
	May 31, 2020 USD ($) Entity Segment ReportingUnit	May 31, 2019 USD ($) Entity Segment	May 31, 2018 USD ($) Facility Position	Feb. 28, 2019 USD ($)
Significant Of Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Percentage of controlled subsidiary's earnings	100.00%
Number of business acquisition | Entity	3	5
Number of reportable segments | Segment	4	3
Net transactional foreign exchange losses	$ 300,000	$ (4,800,000)	$ (12,300,000)
Depreciation	108,500,000	94,000,000.0	82,000,000.0
Cost of sales	3,414,139,000	3,476,231,000	3,305,095,000
Bad debt expense	16,700,000	18,600,000	9,100,000
Inventory write-downs	39,600,000	29,400,000	43,700,000
Goodwill	$ 1,250,066,000	1,245,762,000	1,192,174,000
Number of operating segments | Segment	4
Goodwill impairments	$ 0	0	0
Impairment charge of intangible assets		4,200,000	0
Advertising cost	49,700,000	57,500,000	58,000,000.0
Research and development cost	76,500,000	71,600,000	69,700,000
Realized losses on sales of available-for-sale securities	700,000	3,000,000.0
Realized gains on trading securities	900,000	500,000
Unrealized losses on trading securities	400,000	1,300,000
Unrealized gain on marketable equity securities	1,800,000
Unrealized losses on marketable equity securities		4,600,000
Gross gains realized on sales of marketable securities			11,900,000
Gross losses realized on sales of marketable securities			1,800,000
Cost of Sales | Third Party
Significant Of Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Cost of sales		$ 173,600,000
Type of Cost, Good or Service [Extensible List]		us-gaap:ShippingAndHandlingMember
SG&A | Third Party
Significant Of Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Cost of sales			$ 164,700,000
Type of Cost, Good or Service [Extensible List]			us-gaap:ShippingAndHandlingMember
CPG Segment
Significant Of Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Number of business acquisition | Entity		2
Inventory write-downs		$ 1,000,000.0	$ 1,200,000
Goodwill	405,354,000	407,429,000	372,033,000
Impairment charge of indefinite lived intangible assets		2,000,000.0
CPG Segment | Europe
Significant Of Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Goodwill				$ 125,000,000.0
Consumer Segment
Significant Of Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Fair value of adjustment of deferred income taxes		2,800,000
Inventory write-downs	28,800,000	10,500,000	$ 36,500,000
Number of manufacturing facilities closed | Facility			2
Number of positions eliminated | Position			154
Goodwill	496,218,000	499,387,000	$ 477,718,000
Impairment loss of indefinite lived intangible assets on annual impairment tests	0	0
Impairment charge of indefinite lived intangible assets	4,000,000.0
PCG Segment
Significant Of Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Inventory write-downs	3,200,000	9,000,000.0
Goodwill	$ 185,404,000	$ 185,259,000	186,775,000
Industrial Segment
Significant Of Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Number of operating segments | Segment		2
Wood Finishes Group
Significant Of Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Number of reporting units | ReportingUnit	2
Kop-Coat Group
Significant Of Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Number of reporting units | ReportingUnit	2
SPG reportable segment
Significant Of Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Goodwill	$ 163,090,000	$ 153,687,000	$ 155,648,000
Impairment charge of definite lived intangible assets		$ 2,200,000
Minimum | CPG Segment | Europe
Significant Of Accounting Policies [Line Items]
Percentage of fair value over carrying value				9.00%