Flamboyant

How to spell flamboyant

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce flamboyant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does flamboyant mean?

1. adjectiveStrikingly bold, showy, or extravagant in style, manner, or colour.

Flamboyant in a sentence

• His flamboyant purple suit drew every eye at the conference.

• The host had a flamboyant personality that filled the whole room.

Where does flamboyant come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English from French in the early 1800s, where flamboyant was the present participle of the verb flamboyer, meaning 'to blaze' or 'to flame'. That verb grew from the noun flambe, an old French word for a flame, which traces back to the Latin flamma, meaning 'flame' or 'fire'. The earliest English uses were architectural: 'Flamboyant' described a late Gothic style whose stone tracery was carved into wavy, flame-like shapes, so the word literally meant 'flaming'. From those rippling fiery curves the meaning broadened to anything showy, dramatic, or full of colourful display, which is the everyday sense today. The same flamma root still glows inside the familiar words 'flame' and 'flammable', and remembering that the middle is 'flamb' (a flame) helps explain the otherwise puzzling silent-looking 'b' before the 'oyant'.

How the word is built

• flamboy- (from French flamboyer: to blaze, to flame)
• -ant (adjective suffix: 'flaming')