finesse
Americannoun
-
extreme delicacy or subtlety in action, performance, skill, discrimination, taste, etc.
- Synonyms:
- sensibility, sensitivity, circumspection, diplomacy, tact
-
skill in handling a difficult or highly sensitive situation; adroit and artful management.
exceptional diplomatic finesse.
- Synonyms:
- sensibility, sensitivity, circumspection, diplomacy, tact
-
a trick, artifice, or stratagem.
-
Bridge, Whist. an attempt to win a trick with a card while holding a higher card not in sequence with it, in the hope that the card or cards between will not be played.
verb (used without object)
-
to use finesse or artifice.
-
to make a finesse at cards.
verb (used with object)
-
to bring about by finesse or artifice.
-
to avoid; circumvent.
-
to make a finesse with (a card).
-
to force the playing of (a card) by a finesse.
noun
-
elegant skill in style or performance
-
subtlety and tact in handling difficult situations
-
bridge whist an attempt to win a trick when opponents hold a high card in the suit led by playing a lower card, hoping the opponent who has already played holds the missing card
-
a trick, artifice, or strategy
verb
-
to manage or bring about with finesse
-
to play (a card) as a finesse
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
finessesimple
-
finessessimple
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have finessedperfect
-
has finessedperfect
-
am finessingprogressive
-
are finessingprogressive
-
is finessingprogressive
-
have been finessingperfect progressive
-
has been finessingperfect progressive
Past
-
finessedsimple
-
had finessedperfect
-
was finessingprogressive
-
were finessingprogressive
-
had been finessingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of finesse
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English: “degree of excellence or purity,” from Middle French, from fin fine 1 + -esse -ice
Explanation
Having finesse means you can handle difficult situations with diplomacy and tact, like the finesse it takes to help two friends work out their differences — without taking sides or alienating either one. Finesse is having grace under pressure. It's handling the rantings of an angry customer with a smile and a calm tone. Someone who has finesse says the right thing at the right time — or knows when to say nothing at all. Finesse looks like fineness and in fact comes from the Middle French word that means exactly that — delicate in nature. People with finesse can handle anything — with a delicate approach that really works.
Vocabulary lists containing finesse
Trumps
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "F"
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This Week in Pop Culture: February 2 - 8, 2019
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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.
See Examples For:
When my body said to fling, I really needed to flick; when I used force, I really needed finesse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
But what he might lack in rhetorical finesse, he more than has in job experience, as least as defined by Trump.
From Salon ● Apr. 9, 2026
Whatever the risks of his speechifying, you had to admire — here in our age of political infotainment — the natural finesse with which Springsteen threaded his prepared rhetoric into Tuesday’s set.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2026
In their briefings, government lawyers finesse a sanitized version into a clean narrative of law-abiding responsibility.
From Slate ● Feb. 18, 2026
And even though he looks funny I think he has learned a little finesse today.
From "Mockingbird" by Kathryn Erskine
After some no doubt supersubtle finesses and pivots on both sides, Black seems to have achieved his goal on 30.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 14, 2023
Soft and supple, it finesses the line between elegance and heft.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 8, 2021
Grant attempts two tricky maneuvers with “Harpoon” and, for the most part, finesses them both.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2019
He suggested that the public had seized too narrowly on the times he deploys, say, the King Cobra Driver, rather than the moments he finesses a Titleist putter.
From New York Times ● Sep. 5, 2014
Hoagland would say that now was the time for playing certain finesses, that in the wake of the activity arose those moments that could be manipulated.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
Berkshire does own about $60 billion of Apple stock, but that issue likely could be finessed to get Cook.
From Barron's ● Apr. 24, 2026
Many California hotels have finessed the issue by restricting children’s access without banning them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2025
It’s a mammalian innovation, honed and finessed in the latter stages of the Mesozoic era, the so-called Age of Reptiles.
From Slate ● Sep. 7, 2024
In bright, airy studios in London and Malibu, they finessed what would become Lipa’s most ambitious — and euphoric-sounding — record to date.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 30, 2024
UC Berkeley’s medical school would not get over its disdain for John’s studies for years, until the situation was finessed by the creation of a separate laboratory for radiation science in 1942.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
With enough time and imagination, kickers and equipment managers are capable of finessing footballs in ways that make them soar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2025
The outreach requires finessing complex legal and diplomatic disputes that have long poisoned ties, but, as the court cases demonstrated, history hangs heavy over the relationship.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 22, 2023
The very next day, despite an injured shoulder that threatened to spoil the party, Whitbread won gold for her first major title, finessing her victory with the second-longest throw in history.
From BBC ● Dec. 19, 2023
There is no leveraging, cajoling, or finessing the calculations of thrust, the pressure inside the cryogenic tanks, or the behavior of a 165-foot-long spaceship attempting a rocket-powered landing.
From National Geographic ● Nov. 18, 2023
“Looks like good finessing to me,” said Bobby complacently.
From The Making of Bobby Burnit Being a Record of the Adventures of a Live American Young Man by Flagg, James Montgomery
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.
