Chic

How to spell chic

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce chic

What does chic mean?

1. adjectiveElegantly and fashionably stylish.
2. nounStylishness and elegance of dress or manner.

Chic in a sentence

• adjective

  The boutique hotel had a chic minimalist lobby.

• noun

  The brand built its reputation on understated chic.

• adjective

  She wore a chic black coat to the gallery opening.

• noun

  Her quiet chic made every outfit look expensive.

Where does chic come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English directly from French in the 1800s, where chic meant 'stylish' or 'elegant'. The French term itself is often traced to German Schick, meaning 'skill', 'tact', or 'fitting elegance', from the verb schicken in the sense of 'to arrange suitably', though some scholars instead link it to the French word chicane and the older sense of clever finesse. English first borrowed it as a noun for stylish flair before settling into adjective use for anything fashionably elegant. The spelling trap is entirely French: the 'ch' is pronounced like 'sh', and the word ends in a hard 'c' that sounds like 'k', so it reads as 'sheek' despite looking like it might rhyme with 'chick'. Because it kept its French shape unchanged, it never picked up the English '-ck' ending that 'chick' has, which is exactly what makes the two so easy to confuse on paper.

How the word is built

• chic (a French adjective adopted whole; no separable prefix or suffix in English)