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bel-esprit

[bel-es-pree]
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noun, plural beaux-es·prits [boh-zes-pree] /boʊ zɛsˈpri/. French.
  1. a person of great wit or intellect.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for bel-esprit

Historical Examples

  • There was the blue-stocking lady, a mature belle and bel-esprit.

    Life Without and Life Within

    Margaret Fuller

  • He was a statesman, a bel-esprit, a virtuoso, and a connoisseur.

  • 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

  • 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)

  • One evening he took me with him to a literary renion, at which every bel-esprit of the capital was to be present.