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.
In “This Dark Night,” Ms. Lutz, a professor literature at Pennsylvania State University, deploys flash and elegance when tracing the wellsprings of her subject’s genius to their sources.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026
And it equates small portions to elegance, chicness and peak femininity.
From Salon • May 17, 2026
“Originally built in 2004, the property underwent a significant remodel in 2023/2024, blending timeless elegance with a fresh, light-filled space tailored for today’s modern lifestyle,” the listing reads.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 20, 2026
“Only one person in the world could have done all this with the signature elegance and his provocative style,” she said of Govan.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2026
Most particle physicists feel, as Leon Lederman remarked in a 1985 PBS documentary, that the Standard Model lacks elegance and simplicity.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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.
