métier

American  

[may-tyay, may-tyay] / ˈmeɪ tjeɪ, meɪˈtjeɪ /

noun

• métiers
  plural

1. a field of work; occupation, trade, or profession.

2. a field of work or other activity in which one has special ability or training; forte.

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métier British  

/ ˈmɛtɪeɪ /

noun

1. a profession or trade, esp that to which one is well suited

2. a person's strong point or speciality

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• métiers
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of métier

1785–95; < French; Old French mestier < Gallo-Romance *misterium, for Latin ministerium ministry

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Explanation

If toasting bread is the limit of your culinary skills, then being a chef is probably not your métier. A métier, in other words, is a job to which you are particularly well suited by your skills. Your métier can also be a particularly outstanding talent or strong point in general. If you're a chef, your divine steak frites might be your métier. If you're a mechanic, your ability to understand transmissions may be your métier. Often used interchangeably with forte, meaning "strong point." As the accent over the "e" in métier implies, it's originally from the French, because the French, darn them, are good at so many things. Particularly steak frites.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

métier métiers

Mr. Paré-Poupart is in his element when describing the men with whom he’s worked, misfits all yet high-functioning pros in the mucky métier they’ve chosen for themselves.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

It “lacks focus and stability,” he wrote, “its métier is bearing witness, demonstrating solidarity.”

From Washington Post ● Feb. 1, 2023

His métier is family: the way we are shaped by it and the way we push back on or move beyond it; how it both supports and limits us.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2022

Ian believes her willingness to write about uncomfortable subjects has become her métier.

From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 2022

And so, in the sense of the schools, he is not a philosopher at all; quite the contrary, an implacable enemy of the métier.

From Prophets of Dissent : Essays on Maeterlinck, Strindberg, Nietzsche and Tolstoy by Otto Heller

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo in her speech saluted the “love story between Paris and Dior,” as a house that has managed to keep its “prized” métiers and know-how in France.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 5, 2017

The métiers here progress from embroidery and featherwork, through artificial flowers, pleating, lace and leatherwork.

From New York Times ● May 5, 2016

Karl Lagerfeld created a collection around these métiers, and the first shows were small affairs.

From New York Times ● Dec. 14, 2013

The old man of many métiers has never led an idle life, and dislikes leading it.

From Gwen Wynn A Romance of the Wye by Mayne Reid

By mid-18th century the craft of joiner and carpenter had been completely rationalized in Diderot's Encyclopédie and by André Roubo in his L'Art du menuisier, a part of Duhamel's Descriptions des arts et métiers.

From Woodworking Tools 1600-1900 by Peter C. Welsh

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