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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

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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

To his eternal credit, Suga Free’s technical complexity, comic timing and mid-song impressions make him so inimitable that few ever attempt to copy his savoir-faire.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2023

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

Inside the building’s parquet-floored ballroom, Nichanian’s team is fitting the latest men’s wear collection for Hermès, a house that was founded 184 years ago and has since become a repository of generations of French savoir-faire.

From New York Times ● Sep. 7, 2021

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

It all comes together at L’Oursin, where Proville applies French savoir faire to salmon, scallops, sea urchin, Dungeness crab and more with spectacular results.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 14, 2017

There are, of course, some in Silicon Valley who blend tech savoir faire with old-school Carnegie-style philanthropy.

From New York Times ● Oct. 31, 2015

That’s what Don tells Peggy when she gives up her baby, and what Don’s life represents: An utter severing of past and present, of Dick from Don, of pain from savoir faire.

From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2015

No tact, no savoir faire, no knowledge of the world, no old soldierism that ever I heard of, was proof against this.

From Jack Hinton The Guardsman by Charles James Lever

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