technique

American  

[tek-neek] / tɛkˈnik /

noun

• techniques
  plural

1. the manner and ability with which an artist, writer, dancer, athlete, or the like employs the technical skills of a particular art or field of endeavor.

2. the body of specialized procedures and methods used in any specific field, especially in an area of applied science.

3. method of performance; way of accomplishing.

4. technical skill; ability to apply procedures or methods so as to effect a desired result.

5. Informal. method of projecting personal charm, appeal, etc..

   He has the greatest technique with customers.

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technique British  

/ tɛkˈniːk /

noun

1. a practical method, skill, or art applied to a particular task

2. proficiency in a practical or mechanical skill

3. special facility; knack

   he had the technique of turning everything to his advantage

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• techniques
  plural

Etymology

Origin of technique

First recorded in 1810–20; from French: “technical” (adjective), “technic” (noun), from Greek technikós, techniká; see technic

Explanation

A technique is a method of doing some task or performing something. Your technique for opening drinks might be to twist the top off with your teeth. If so, your dentist better have a good tooth-repair technique. The noun technique can also refer to someone's skillfulness with the fundamentals of a particular task. A violinist could have excellent technique, but lack passion, for example. Writers usually have very individual writing techniques: One might need to write late at night and another early in the morning; some have to write by hand on paper, while others always use the computer.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

technique techniques

That technique slashes an AI model’s memory usage—such as in a chatbot conversation—by creating a shorthand version of what has gone before.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

In the future, it could be possible to use this technique to rapidly speed up the development of certain brain cells, Arlotta speculated.

From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026

The technique produced DNA assembly efficiencies two to five times higher than those achieved with conventional restriction enzyme methods.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026

The team reports the technique in a recent paper published in Nature.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026

In the first few weeks, alas, poor Xiang Xiang couldn’t master the skilled panda technique of bamboo eating—he wasted about 75 percent of the edible plant—and probably spent much of those days hungry.

From "Camp Panda" by Catherine Thimmesh

Using crowdsourcing techniques, VroniPlag Wiki in Germany and Dissernet in Russia have exposed numerous instances of plagiarism by public servants in their dissertations and academic publications.

From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026

Those techniques were behind the “DeepSeek shock” in January 2025, when Liang’s company released a powerful but inexpensive new open-source model and U.S. stocks briefly swooned at the unexpected rise of Chinese competition.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

"No matter what the theorists did -- even with the most advanced computer simulation techniques -- they could not reproduce the experiments," said Millot.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 2026

Four years ago a trace of DNA was detected on fragments of skin found on the victim's trousers because of improved forensic techniques.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

What the apprentice or art student learns are skills and techniques: established ways of drawing, painting, carving, designing—established ways of seeing.

From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson

Related Words

• approach
• art
• capability
• capacity
• craft
• facility
• know-how
• manner
• means
• mode
• performance
• procedure
• routine
• skill
• style
• system