Etymology
Origin of inelegance
First recorded in 1720–30; ineleg(ant) + -ance
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.
Once a showcase of American power, the Oval Office has now become a shrine to inelegance.
From Salon ● Jan. 4, 2026
“Teach me how to not be afraid,” the clergyman, a composite figure of several acquaintances, asks Rustin, a line emblematic of the film’s occasional inelegance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2023
Her recent building for St Anthony’s college in Oxford, , meanwhile, smashes into its historic neighbour with the same thuggish inelegance as her Serpentine Sackler Centre does in London.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 31, 2016
The response is a risky endeavor, often marred by inelegance and blunder.
From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2014
“Poverty, inelegance, and poorness of diction,” will be no longer so “generally observed,” and even hearers of taste will cease to be offended.
From Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching by Henry Ware
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.
