nuance
[noo-ahns, nyoo-, noo-ahns, nyoo-; French ny-ahns]
- a subtle difference or distinction in expression, meaning, response, etc.
- a very slight difference or variation in color or tone.
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Origin of nuance
1775–85; < French: shade, hue, equivalent to nu(er) to shade (literally, to cloud < Vulgar Latin *nūbāre, derivative of *nūba, for Latin nūbēs cloud) + -ance -ance
Synonyms
See more synonyms for nuance on Thesaurus.com1. subtlety, nicety, hint, refinement.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for nuance
Contemporary Examples
He has none of the subtlety and nuance of black conservative academics such as Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams.
What these trips show is that there is a bit of nuance to life in North Korea.
I do not envy him this ministry of reconciliation, which is fraught with complexity and nuance.
Mistakes happen, nuance is often lost, and everything is seen through a prism of who is winning and who is losing.
Perhaps they're loath to identify themselves with a worldview that leaves so little room for nuance.
Historical Examples
There was a nuance of profound bewilderment in her exclamation.
The Black BagLouis Joseph Vance
They do not understand me; the big noisy boors do not understand rhythm or nuance.
MelomaniacsJames Huneker
He was the master of the nuance, and the nuance was his lyricism, his special gift, his genius.
Adventures in the ArtsMarsden Hartley
Of course I don't expect you, just at first, to feel the difference, to see the nuance.
The ReefEdith Wharton
The sand is fine as face powder, nuance Rachel, packed hard.
Mr. Incoul's MisadventureEdgar Saltus
nuance
- a subtle difference in colour, meaning, tone, etc; a shade or graduation
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- to give subtle differences tocarefully nuanced words
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Word Origin
C18: from French, from nuer to show light and shade, ultimately from Latin nūbēs a cloud
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for nuance
n.
1781, from French nuance "slight difference, shade of color" (17c.), from nuer "to shade," from nue "cloud," from Gallo-Romance *nuba, from Latin nubes "a cloud, mist, vapor," from PIE *sneudh- "fog" (cf. Avestan snaoda "clouds," Latin obnubere "to veil," Welsh nudd "fog," Greek nython, in Hesychius "dark, dusky"). According to Klein, a reference to "the different colors of the clouds."
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v.
1886, from nuance (n.). Related: Nuanced.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
nuance
[(nooh-ahns)]
A fine shade of meaning: “I liked the film, but I know I missed some of its nuances.”
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.