Elegance

How to spell elegance

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce elegance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does elegance mean?

1. nounGraceful, tasteful refinement in appearance, style, or manner.

Elegance in a sentence

• The hotel lobby was decorated with quiet elegance and soft lighting.

• She carried herself with an elegance that impressed the interview panel.

Where does elegance come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Elegance traces back to the Latin verb eligere, meaning 'to pick out' or 'to choose carefully', formed from ex 'out' and legere 'to choose or gather'. From this came the adjective elegans, which originally described a person who was fastidious or even fussy in their choices, and only later softened into a compliment about refined taste. The noun elegantia followed, naming the quality of tasteful refinement, and English took the word through French as elegance in the late 1400s. Its close cousin 'elect' shares the same legere root, the idea of choosing, while the gentler -ance ending is what catches writers out, since the unstressed final syllable sounds like it could just as easily be spelled -ence. Holding on to the link with 'elegant' is the surest way to remember that the e before the g stays put.

How the word is built

• e- (out, from Latin ex)
• leg (to choose, from legere)
• -ance (noun suffix denoting quality or state)