elegant
Americanadjective
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tastefully fine or luxurious in dress, style, design, etc..
elegant furnishings.
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gracefully refined and dignified, as in tastes, habits, or literary style.
an elegant young gentleman; an elegant prosodist.
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graceful in form or movement.
an elegant wave of the hand.
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appropriate to refined taste.
a man devoted to elegant pursuits.
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excellent; fine; superior.
an absolutely elegant wine.
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(of scientific, technical, or mathematical theories, solutions, etc.) gracefully concise and simple; admirably succinct.
adjective
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tasteful in dress, style, or design
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dignified and graceful in appearance, behaviour, etc
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cleverly simple; ingenious
an elegant solution to a problem
Synonym Usage
See fine 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of elegant
First recorded in 1400–50; Late Middle English (from Middle French ), from Latin ēlegant- (stem of ēlegāns ) “tasteful, choice,” equivalent to ēleg- (akin to ēlig- “select”) + -ant- a suffix forming adjectives from verbs; originally the present participle of ēlegāre (unattested); see origin at elect, -ant
Explanation
Nimble ballerinas and long-legged birds are elegant; dump trucks and walruses usually are not. Being graceful and refined are aspects of being elegant. That word first appears in English in the 15th century. It comes, via Old French, from the same Latin source that gave rise to the English word "elect, and it does seem that especially elegant people and things are in a select group. Very stylishly dressed men and women are elegant, and fine restaurants with distinctive delicacies are elegant. Most ordinary places and people can become elegant, though, when dressed up or adorned for special occasions. Even walruses can appear elegant when they're swimming.
Vocabulary lists containing elegant
Call of Beauty: Synonyms for "Beautiful"
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Bronx Masquerade
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But jarring tensions are emerging in the run-up to UFC Freedom 250, the event being held in a specially built arena erected over the White House's elegant South Lawn.
From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026
"Our result shows that it is not only possible, but that it can be achieved with a surprisingly elegant architecture that the integrated-photonics community had overlooked."
From Science Daily • Jun. 4, 2026
Villarreal: It won’t look as elegant as you, Sarah, but talk to me about finding that walk because, like you said, it shifts from when the onslaught happens.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 4, 2026
The Rodgers’ elegant Victorian Craftsman measures just over 5,300 square feet—just over half the size of Aaron’s enormous 10,500-square-foot Wisconsin abode, which sits at the heart of a leafy 5-acre parcel.
From MarketWatch • May 29, 2026
Leonor had once been tall and elegant; now, at seventy-six, she was bent.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
