Graceful

How to spell graceful

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce graceful

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does graceful mean?

1. adjectiveShowing elegance, smoothness, or charm in movement, form, or manner.

Graceful in a sentence

• The dancer made every turn look effortless and graceful.

• She wrote a graceful reply that thanked everyone without sounding forced.

Where does graceful come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word pairs the noun 'grace' with the adjective-forming suffix '-ful', and the heart of it lies in the Latin gratia, which meant pleasing quality, favour, or thankfulness. That noun grew out of gratus, an adjective meaning 'pleasing' or 'agreeable', the same root that still hums inside 'gratitude' and 'gratis'. English took 'grace' through Old French in the medieval period, where it carried ideas of divine favour as well as elegance of movement and manner. The combining form '-ful' is native English, meaning 'full of', so 'graceful' literally describes something full of grace, and it became common from around the 1500s. A useful spelling reminder is that '-ful' as a suffix always keeps a single L, even though the standalone word 'full' has two.

How the word is built

• grace (from Latin gratia: charm, favour)
• -ful (full of, adjective suffix)