noun
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dignified grace in appearance, movement, or behaviour
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good taste in design, style, arrangement, etc
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something elegant; a refinement
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of elegance
1500–10; < Middle French < Latin ēlegantia choiceness. See elegant, -ance
Explanation
Elegance is a quality of style and grace. In our age of jeans and sneakers, the elegance of actresses on the red carpet on Oscar night is such a welcome sight. It comes from the Latin elegantia, "taste, propriety, or refinement." Fashion designer and eternal fashion icon Coco Chanel famously said, "Elegance is refusal," meaning it's best to skip the big jewelry and flashy clothes in favor of simple styles made from luxurious fabrics that one could wear forever — and look great every time. Elegance also describes the beautiful simplicity of a solution, such as an elegant mathematical proof.
Vocabulary lists containing elegance
Our Town
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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"Novio Boy: Scene 7, Part 1" and "Oranges"
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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.
When Hollywood deities Grace Kelly and Cary Grant were shown cruising along the French Riviera in a beautiful, sleek Sunbeam Alpine in To Catch a Thief, for example, they epitomised silver-screen elegance and savoir-faire.
From BBC • Jun. 14, 2026
The Saint Paul Hotel — Overlooking Rice Park in downtown St. Paul, the Saint Paul Hotel delivers old-world elegance with the kind of attentive service that’s increasingly rare.
From Salon • Jun. 11, 2026
Traditional British architecture is characterized by the majesty of Elizabethan halls with their palatial glass, the elegance of Georgian townhouses and their sash windows or the charm of Tudor cottages with their trademark diamond casements.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 29, 2026
It’s an evolving boyhood, framed with unshowy elegance by cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub against the island’s flat, grassy, weather-rich horizons.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 24, 2026
It doesn’t have the structural elegance of the work of later handbooks, and it’s written to instruct rather than to impress.
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
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.
