jeu d'esprit
Americannoun
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jeux d'esprit
plural
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a witticism.
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a literary work showing keen wit or intelligence rather than profundity.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of jeu d'esprit
Literally, “play of spirit”
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.
Still, there is one difference: Irregulars regard such playful ingenuity as merely an intellectual game, a literal jeu d’esprit.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2023
In addition, science fiction grandmaster Robert Silverberg describes how “F&SF” got its start and Paul Di Filippo offers a scholarly jeu d’esprit about a long-lost collaboration between Jules Verne and H.G.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 2, 2019
Ratmansky’s Violente keeps her arms closer to her chest, and deploys them more softly, so that the pointing becomes a sort of jeu d’esprit.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 8, 2015
There are echoes of “Manhattan” and “Annie Hall,” but the better analogues for this jeu d’esprit, written by Peter Glanz and Juan Iglesias and directed by Mr. Glanz, are Mr. Allen’s comic New Yorker essays.
From New York Times ● Aug. 21, 2011
The emperor Hadrian, whose character is an enigma of contrasts, to judge by his last famous jeu d’esprit on his death-bed, probably died a sceptic.
From Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius by Samuel Dill
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.
