svelte
Americanadjective
-
slender, especially gracefully slender in figure; lithe.
-
suave; blandly urbane.
adjective
-
attractively or gracefully slim; slender
-
urbane or sophisticated
Etymology
Origin of svelte
1810–20; < French < Italian svelto < Vulgar Latin *exvellitus pulled out (replacing Latin ēvulsus, past participle of ēvellere ), equivalent to Latin ex- ex- 1 + velli-, variant stem of vellere to pull, pluck + -tus past participle suffix
Explanation
Svelte means slender. It's used to describe people, not things, and it implies a certain elegance. You might say that a middle-aged woman who had kept a svelte figure could still pass for a sixteen-year-old girl. Svelte came to English from the French, back in the 19th century when the French had the last word on fashion, which probably accounts for its associations with elegance. It has nothing to do with the word sweltering, which means hot enough to make you sweat.
Vocabulary lists containing svelte
15 Synonyms for "Thin": An Eileen Ford (1922-2014) Tribute List
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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
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Beauty Queens
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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:
It’s apparently not enough to have a full-time aide, a svelte blonde by the name of Natalie Harp, to follow him around night and day for the sole purpose of offering praise.
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026
Ads from American Express, which unveiled its Platinum card in 1984, featured Carol Channing in long gloves holding a diamond and “Don’t leave home without it” printed in a svelte serif.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2025
“That’s very cool,” Winter said, adding that the bird seemed graceful as a ballerina, “the most aloof, elegant, svelte creature ever.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2024
Why do some dog breeds struggle to stay svelte?
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 8, 2024
The other lady of the ensemble, a svelte twilight soubrette, objects to my having, so to speak, photographed her in her old housecoat.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
Matsuda ran with the concept, and over the next two years, he led a team in developing a svelter design.
From The Verge ● Aug. 4, 2021
But the experience for the slightly svelter rodents involved a lot of shivering until their bodies adjusted by building up body-warming, calorie-burning brown fat.
From Slate ● Apr. 17, 2019
Its success led to a 1900 remake, featuring svelter characters.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 12, 2019
Ugo Ihemelu -- The Nigerian-born Ihemelu is the svelter of the two Dallas center backs, so I'm figuring he gets paired up with Seattle's DP forward most often.
From Seattle Times ● May 25, 2011
I watched with the profoundest satisfaction as five days of grime ran down my legs and out the drainhole, and noticed with astonished gratitude that my body had taken on a noticeably svelter profile.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
From an early age she aspired to be a ballet dancer, and, though never the sveltest girl en point, at 16 she landed a job in the corps de ballet at Radio City Music Hall.
From New York Times ● Aug. 30, 2019
But the Lifter is not the sveltest of vessels — just 10 feet narrower than the 110-foot locks themselves — and required the finesse of a Panama Canal Authority pilot to thread the needle.
From New York Times ● Jan. 28, 2014
Beyond income, it was the sveltest, splashiest, most scrambled-after social affair that the nation's capital has seen in many years.
From Time Magazine Archive
Sir Max, one of the keenest wits and sveltest exquisites of the 1890s, came into the late Victorian world when Oscar Wilde was just a lily-loving boy and Dante Gabriel Rossetti a doddering gaffer.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
