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
The sheer sublimity of this sequence — the eerie silence, the stillness and clarity of the image — stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the movie, which is framed with almost defiant inelegance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2018
Watching Ron live out this double-consciousness immediately triggered vivid memories of my own management of double consciousness — conducting that tricky dance that leaves no room for inelegance.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 7, 2018
Is it possible that the slogan’s ungrammatical inelegance is part of that rebuke?
From Slate ● May 7, 2018
Whatever they had among them before, whether of learning or acuteness, was commonly obscured and blunted by coarseness, and inelegance of style.
From The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. in Nine Volumes Volume the Eighth: The Lives of the Poets, Volume II by Johnson, Samuel
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.
