bel-esprit

[ bel-es-pree ]

/ bɛl ɛsˈpri /

a person of great wit or intellect.

Nearby words

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

What we commonly understand in French by "esprit," "bel-esprit," "trait d'esprit," are—ingenious thoughts.
A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 10 (of 10)|Franois-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire)
And that father of hers, with his doubtful past and his cruelties, and the bel-esprit her mother, with her doubtful reputation.
Resurrection|Leo Tolstoy
Madame de Pompadour joked my companion about her 'bel-esprit', but sometimes she reposed confidence in her.
The Secret Memoirs of Louis XV./XVI, Complete|Madame du Hausset, an "Unknown English Girl" and the Princess Lamballe
One evening he took me with him to a literary renion, at which every bel-esprit of the capital was to be present.
Continental Monthly, Vol. I, No. V, May, 1862|Various

He was a statesman, a bel-esprit, a virtuoso, and a connoisseur.
The Monarchs of the Main, Volume I (of 3)|Walter Thornbury