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

Distillation is a technique in which a smaller AI model is trained to mimic the outputs of a larger, more capable one.

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026

Hermès uses a technique known as “bundling” in luxury circles.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

The Michelin Guide awards up to three stars to eateries based on ingredient quality, flavour mastery, cooking technique, chef's personality and consistency.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

An international research team led by Hiroshima University has developed a technique that can reveal extremely early changes in human skin collagen, long before the damage becomes visible under conventional imaging.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026

At Caltech, two physical chemists, Linus Pauling and Robert Corey, had used this technique to solve the structures of several protein fragments—a feat that would win Pauling the Nobel Prize in 1954.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

They employ all manners of external stimuli and self-optimization techniques to approach even a fraction of what your heart is naturally capable of.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

He's learning the skills to work on modern classic cars that need a mix of traditional and new techniques to restore.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

The patents cover both the scanner design and the image-processing techniques, including the NN developed by Alonso-Monsalve.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026

The authors found that EEA capabilities have improved markedly over the past decade, thanks to advances in understanding physical drivers of events, expanded observational data from satellites and radar, new statistical techniques and better models.

From Barron's ● Jul. 16, 2026

Naturally, as soon as they became familiar with the geometrical techniques of perspective representation, artists became fascinated by mathematical shapes and the difficulties of drawing them.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Related Words

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