suavity

American  

[swah-vi-tee, swav-i-] / ˈswɑ vɪ ti, ˈswæv ɪ- /

Also suaveness

noun

• suavities
  plural

1. a suave or smoothly agreeable quality.

2. suavities, suave or courteous actions or manners; amenities.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• suavities
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of suavity

1400–50; late Middle English < Latin suāvitās pleasantness, equivalent to suāv ( is ) sweet + -itās -ity

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Explanation

Suavity is the art of making people like and want to be around you, like the celebrity whose suavity helped him land great movie roles — even though he wasn't the most talented actor to audition. Suavity, pronounced "SWAH-vuh-tee," depends on saying all the right things to "get in good" with everyone around. So, though it is a graceful and often helpful thing to have suavity, it also might be a little less than real: In avoiding any topic that might get the conversation moving in a more lively and even heated direction, those who possess great suavity may also make things a little boring, fake, even. Talking about the weather and where everyone went on vacation does get a bit old.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

suavity suavities

And Mr. Consuelos, best known for the talk show “Live With Kelly & Mark,” exudes amusingly overripe suavity as the elusive Maurice.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026

Those dudes are trying to play the sinister “ugly American” roles, although with a singular lack of suavity and not much success.

From Salon ● Apr. 6, 2025

A laid-back number that flirts with western swing, Buffett rhapsodizes about an outdated style of facial hair that conveys a certain classic Hollywood suavity.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2023

There was the same luxury, the same silky suavity, the same lightness in the brasses, but also more fierceness and density.

From New York Times ● Nov. 13, 2022

I attended to all the ghastly formalities, and the urbane undertaker proved that his staff were afflicted—or blessed—with something of his own obsequious suavity.

From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker

Outdoors is more tractable to the director then the shifting suavities of the drawing room.

From Time Magazine Archive

The two women were perfectly conscious of reciprocal dislike, but they smothered the feeling beneath conventional suavities.

From New Grub Street by George Gissing

Under all his gentle suavities there was a fixed, inflexible will, a calm self-restraint, and a composed philosophical measurement of others, that fitted him to bear despotic rule over an impulsive, unguarded nature.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 22, August, 1859 by Various

Over Charity's shoulder and through the spray of the goura on her hat he saw Kedzie sharp and stark, her suavities of line and the milk-smooth fabric of her envelope.

From We Can't Have Everything by Rupert Hughes

She was charmed by the spirit of the place, constrained by its suggestion of fair observances, high decencies, and social suavities.

From The Helpmate by May Sinclair

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