adjective
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known only to connoisseurs; choice or rare
-
studiedly refined or elegant
Etymology
Origin of recherché
First recorded in 1680–90; from French, past participle of rechercher “to search for carefully”; see research
Explanation
Something that's recherche is very fancy, and maybe a little bit rare. Taking an elegant ocean liner from New York to France would be a recherche way to travel. Language can be recherche, when it's especially complicated. If you're writing a story and instead of "She said," you write "She opined" or "She emoted," your style is fairly recherche. And if everyone at a party is wearing jeans, but you wear a tuxedo, your outfit is recherche. In French, recherché means "carefully sought out," from chercher, "to search."
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.
How did a recherché, quasi-French dish leave the skillful hands of Thomas Jefferson’s enslaved cooks and wind up being popular grub for millions of today’s cooks and consumers, white and—emphatically—black?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
They added that AICA-USA was “moribund and loyal to the time when art criticism and writing was a niche, privileged, recherché endeavor. We insist that it does not need to be this.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2023
And restorative justice—once a fairly recherché concept on the left—has gotten widespread enough that the backlash is well under way.
From Slate ● Nov. 15, 2021
Social goods come in many forms and we’ll have plenty of time to be surprised by some of the more recherché ones in the months ahead.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 18, 2020
Super royal 8vo, elegant and recherché Binding after the 18th Century, 31s. 6d.
From A Cursory History of Swearing by Sharman, Julian
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.
