flair

[flair]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR flair ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a natural talent, aptitude, or ability; bent; knack: a flair for rhyming.

smartness of style, manner, etc.: Their window display has absolutely no flair at all.

keen, intuitive perception or discernment: We want a casting director with a real flair for finding dramatic talent.

Hunting. scent; sense of smell.

Origin of flair

1350–1400; Middle English < French, Old French: scent, noun derivative of flairier to reek ≪ Vulgar Latin *flāgrāre, dissimilated variant of Latin frāgrāre. See fragrant

Can be confusedflair flare

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

Related Words for flair

ability, gift, taste, mastery, elegance, glamour, genius, aptitude, knack, shine, pizzazz, head, panache, bent, zip, presence, feel, accomplishment, aptness, dash

Examples from the Web for flair

Contemporary Examples of flair

“They are motivated by insecurity, fear, lack of imagination and above all, a lack of flair,” he said.
Mike Leigh Is the Master Filmmaker Who Hates Hollywood
Nico Hines
October 14, 2014
She does not shy from a fight, and she has a flair for political theater to make Ted Cruz envious.
When Wendy Davis Was a Republican
Michelle Cottle
January 24, 2014
Worn singularly or layered for a more dramatic effect, the thin metal bands evoke an ethnic sort of flair.
First Knuckle Rings, Popular During the Renaissance, Return to Fashion
Misty White Sidell
January 31, 2013
And it bespeaks a confidence and flair not often attributed to the much-maligned candidate.
Mitt's Sense of Humor, Ctd.
Justin Green
October 19, 2012
“He had a flair for the dramatic, to be sure, but it was for more than theatrics,” Clinton said.
Richard Holbrooke's Last Mission in Afghanistan by David Rohde
David Rohde
November 26, 2011

Historical Examples of flair

There was a flair of vanity in Gaddon that dated back to his English ancestry.
The Monster
S. M. Tenneshaw
You see, heart counts, and sympathy, and the flair for understanding.
The Devil's Paw
E. Phillips Oppenheim
He has the flair of the dealer, not the perception of the amateur.
Appearances
Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson
The Virginian flair for political life was thus early in evidence.
Pioneers of the Old South
Mary Johnston
Now Isabelle had a flair for the odd, and she understood her own limitations and her own style.
The Cricket
Marjorie Cooke

British Dictionary definitions for flair

flair

noun

natural ability; talent; aptitude

instinctive discernment; perceptiveness

stylishness or elegance; dashto dress with flair

hunting rare

the scent left by quarry
the sense of smell of a hound

Word Origin for flair

C19: from French, literally: sense of smell, from Old French: scent, from flairier to give off a smell, ultimately from Latin frāgrāre to smell sweet; see fragrant

flair

noun

a Scot word for floor

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for flair

mid-14c., "an odor," from Old French flair "odor or scent," from flairer "to smell," from Vulgar Latin *flagrare, dissimilated from Latin fragrare "emit (a sweet) odor" (see fragrant). Sense of "special aptitude" is American English, 1925, perhaps from notion of a hound's ability to track scent.