quaint
Americanadjective
-
quainter,
comparative
-
quaintest
superlative
-
having an old-fashioned attractiveness or charm; oddly picturesque.
a quaint old house.
- Synonyms:
- archaic, antiquated
-
strange, peculiar, or unusual in an interesting, pleasing, or amusing way.
a quaint sense of humor.
- Antonyms:
- ordinary
-
skillfully or cleverly made.
-
Obsolete. wise; skilled.
adjective
-
attractively unusual, esp in an old-fashioned style
a quaint village
-
odd, peculiar, or inappropriate
a quaint sense of duty
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
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."
Vocabulary lists containing quaint
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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:
Some of the plots of my earlier novels would seem quaint today.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 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
High Park Farm also looms large in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Exhibit, with a whole section configured to look like the inside of their farmhouse: wood paneling, quaint lighting, faux windows.
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2026
Yet the genteel detachment of Pasteur and his contemporaries seemed quaint, even foolish, given the profits to be made in the industrial world.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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
Real estate descriptions don't get much quainter than that.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2015
It is a compact little town with many quaint houses and quainter by-paths.
From Hertfordshire by E. H. (Edmund Hort) New
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
But of all the rooms I think the quaintest was the kitchen.
From A Terrible Tomboy by Angela Brazil
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.
