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• savoir-faire
  savoir-faire

  noun

  knowledge of just what to do in any situation; tact.
• savoir faire
  savoir faire

  Ease and dexterity in social and practical affairs: “Peter is a friendly person, but he lacks the savoir faire required for a successful career in the foreign service.” From French, meaning “to know how to act.”

savoir-faire

American  

[sav-wahr-fair, sa-vwar-fer] / ˈsæv wɑrˈfɛər, sa vwarˈfɛr /

noun

1. knowledge of just what to do in any situation; tact.

   Synonyms:

   ability, skill, discernment, diplomacy, adroitness, adaptability

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savoir-faire British  

/ ˈsævwɑːˈfɛə /

noun

1. the ability to do the right thing in any situation

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savoir faire Cultural  

1. Ease and dexterity in social and practical affairs: “Peter is a friendly person, but he lacks the savoir faire required for a successful career in the foreign service.” From French, meaning “to know how to act.”

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Etymology

Origin of savoir-faire

1805–15; < French: literally, knowing how to do

Explanation

Your savoir-faire is your social smoothness. It will serve you well at parties and on the first day at a new school. As with so many French words that have English cousins, the French version somehow retains an edge of sophistication over its counterpart. The nearest English equivalent of savoir-faire is know-how. But while know-how pertains to nearly all skills, especially practical ones, savoir-faire usually refers specifically to skill in social and diplomatic situations.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

savoir-faire savoir faire

When Hollywood deities Grace Kelly and Cary Grant were shown cruising along the French Riviera in a beautiful, sleek Sunbeam Alpine in To Catch a Thief, for example, they epitomised silver-screen elegance and savoir-faire.

From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026

An institution near rue Mouffetard, La Tuile à Loup cultivates beauty by preserving the savoir-faire of traditional artisans in the countryside.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 14, 2021

Guided by Zorro’s seamless knitting of savoir-faire and moral uplift, the producers of the Disney TV series made it one of the cleverest and most well-crafted, family-targeted shows of the 1950s.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 29, 2020

For those who aspire to be guardians and stewards of French savoir-faire, what better way to prove it?

From New York Times ● Apr. 16, 2019

He was painfully aware that he lacked the ecclesiastical aplomb and savoir-faire that enabled so many of his colleagues in other faiths and sects to get ahead.

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

The Spanish champions have the experience, the savoir faire, the heritage, the money time mentality and the talent.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2024

He was equally entranced by the women Capote referred to as his Swans, self-created creatures whom he admired for their style, wealth and savoir faire.

From New York Times ● Jan. 30, 2024

Selections went from fine French bottlings to show American savoir faire toward U.S. labels as domestic wines improved in quality and stature.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 11, 2020

James, pillow-lipped and constitutionally ebullient, never manages to play a convincing mouse, and Hammer signifies his savoir faire by smoking cigarettes and dispensing clipped orders to underlings.

From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2020

What he most detested were the commonplace, incapacity, a lack of savoir faire: he hated and despised a fool.

From An Autobiography by Igor Stravinsky