quaint

American  

[kweynt] / kweɪnt /

adjective

• quainter,
  comparative
• quaintest
  superlative

1. having an old-fashioned attractiveness or charm; oddly picturesque.

   a quaint old house.

   Synonyms:

   archaic, antiquated

2. strange, peculiar, or unusual in an interesting, pleasing, or amusing way.

   a quaint sense of humor.

   Synonyms:

   uncommon, curious

   Antonyms:

   ordinary

3. skillfully or cleverly made.

4. Obsolete. wise; skilled.

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quaint British  

/ kweɪnt /

adjective

1. attractively unusual, esp in an old-fashioned style

   a quaint village

2. odd, peculiar, or inappropriate

   a quaint sense of duty

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• quaintness
  noun
• quaintly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Adjectives

• quainter
  comparative
• quaintest
  superlative

Etymology

Origin of quaint

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English queinte, from Old French, variant of cointe “clever, pleasing,” from Latin cognitus “learned, known,” past participle of cognōscere “to learn, become acquainted”; see cognition

Explanation

Quaint means strange and unusual in an old-fashioned and charming way. It's a word you'd use to describe a little store that sells tea cozies and antique tea services, or your grandmother's habit of calling the radio the "wireless." There is a commonly used sarcastic sense of quaint — when something is run down or shabby and you're trying to say something positive, you might substitute "How...quaint" for "How...interesting." In Middle English, this adjective meant "clever" or "cunning." Its origin is Old French queinte, cointe, from Latin cognitus "known," from cognōscere "to learn."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

quaint quainter quaintest

Nestled in the wooded hills of Austria's Styria region, the town of Leoben oozes tradition with its pastel-coloured buildings and quaint central square boasting a 13th-century church.

From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026

Mitchell’s film, which follows a family of four in 1982 as they realize their entire quaint suburban neighborhood has somehow been transported back to the Mesozoic era, has understandably swept audiences off their feet.

From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026

Such restraint today seems as quaint as poodle skirts and “I Love Lucy.”

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026

The script was revised, but even still it was seen as a dramatic throwback to a quaint yet belabored school of playwriting.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

Isn’t she quaint, Luke would say to me, and my mother would look sly, furtive almost.

From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood

It was a quainter sort of hellraising performance.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 11, 2019

Maybe writers David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall tried too hard to rationalize the material, updating one of DC’s weirder, quainter heroes into something modern.

From The Verge ● Dec. 19, 2018

For all of his pageantry, as he got older he got quainter.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 28, 2017

The fund used to be seen as the world's leading financial sadist — or a "grandmotherly" scold, in the quainter phrase of John Maynard Keynes, who conceived and co-founded it in the 1940s.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2014

The old church rears its quaint height above the quainter houses that cluster near.

From Side Lights by Grant Allen

Founded in 1849, Downieville, population 300, is one of California’s oldest towns, and also one of its quaintest.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2025

So welcome, I suppose, to the quaintest desecration you’ll ever see.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2023

At the Alaska Zoo, possibly the quaintest polling place in Anchorage, voters on Tuesday morning shared mixed feelings on the new system.

From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2022

Although we do not know what happens to butterflies at night, we do know that, as winter approaches, many will form a “Sepulchre of quaintest Floss”—a cocoon.

From Slate ● May 17, 2016

She who can tye, with quaintest Art, The spruce Cravat-string, wins his Heart; Where that same Toy does not exactly sit, He's not for common Conversation fit.

From Mundus Foppensis The Fop Display'd by John Evelyn

Related Words

• bizarre
• curious
• fanciful
• funny
• laughable
• peculiar
• unusual
• weird
• whimsical