elegance

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el·e·gance

(ĕl′ĭ-gəns)

a. Refinement, grace, and beauty in movement, appearance, or manners.

b. Tasteful opulence in form, decoration, or presentation.

a. Restraint and grace of style.

b. Scientific exactness and precision.

3. Something elegant.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

elegance

(ˈɛlɪɡəns) or

elegancy

n, pl -gances or -gancies

1. dignified grace in appearance, movement, or behaviour

2. good taste in design, style, arrangement, etc

3. something elegant; a refinement

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

el•e•gance

(ˈɛl ɪ gəns)

n.

1. elegant quality.

2. something elegant.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	elegance - a refined quality of gracefulness and good taste; "she conveys an aura of elegance and gentility" quality - an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone; "the quality of mercy is not strained"--Shakespeare dash, panache, elan, flair, style - distinctive and stylish elegance; "he wooed her with the confident dash of a cavalry officer" daintiness, delicacy, fineness - the quality of being beautiful and delicate in appearance; "the daintiness of her touch"; "the fineness of her features" courtliness - elegance suggestive of a royal court tastefulness - elegance indicated by good taste breeding, genteelness, gentility - elegance by virtue of fineness of manner and expression chic, chicness, modishness, stylishness, swank, chichi, last word, smartness - elegance by virtue of being fashionable grandeur, magnificence, splendor, splendour, brilliance, grandness - the quality of being magnificent or splendid or grand; "for magnificence and personal service there is the Queen's hotel"; "his `Hamlet' lacks the brilliance that one expects"; "it is the university that gives the scene its stately splendor"; "an imaginative mix of old-fashioned grandeur and colorful art"; "advertisers capitalize on the grandness and elegance it brings to their products" eclat, pomp - ceremonial elegance and splendor; "entered with much eclat in a coach drawn by eight white horses" class - elegance in dress or behavior; "she has a lot of class" inelegance - the quality of lacking refinement and good taste
	2.	elegance - a quality of neatness and ingenious simplicity in the solution of a problem (especially in science or mathematics); "the simplicity and elegance of his invention" quality - an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone; "the quality of mercy is not strained"--Shakespeare

elegance

noun style, taste, beauty, grace, dignity, sophistication, grandeur, refinement, polish, gentility, sumptuousness, courtliness, gracefulness, tastefulness, exquisiteness Princess Grace's understated elegance

Quotations
"To me, elegance is not to pass unnoticed but to get to the very soul of what one is" [Christian Lacroix]

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

elegance

noun

Refined, effortless beauty of manner, form, and style:

elegancy, grace, polish, urbanity.

Translations

إتْقان، أناقَه

elegance

elegancestilfuldhed

elegancia

glæsileiki

eleganza

eleganse smakfullhet

şıklıkzerafet

雅致高雅

elegance

[ˈelɪgəns] N → elegancia f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

elegance

[ˈɛlɪgəns] n

(= stylishness) [street, furniture, house] → élégance f; [person] → élégance f

(= cleverness) [style, writing] → élégance f; [idea, solution] → élégance f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

elegance

n → Eleganz f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

elegance

[ˈɛlɪgəns] n → eleganza

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

elegant

(ˈeligənt) adjective

having or showing stylishness. elegant clothes; You look elegant today.

ˈelegance noun

References in classic literature ?

Dashwood was upon the whole well satisfied; for though her former style of life rendered many additions to the latter indispensable, yet to add and improve was a delight to her; and she had at this time ready money enough to supply all that was wanted of greater elegance to the apartments.

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Jane Fairfax was very elegant, remarkably elegant; and she had herself the highest value for elegance. Her height was pretty, just such as almost every body would think tall, and nobody could think very tall; her figure particularly graceful; her size a most becoming medium, between fat and thin, though a slight appearance of illhealth seemed to point out the likeliest evil of the two.

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The elegance, propriety, regularity, harmony, and perhaps, above all, the peace and tranquillity of Mansfield, were brought to her remembrance every hour of the day, by the prevalence of everything opposite to them here.

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The house is a good one, the furniture fashionable, and everything announces plenty and elegance. Charles is very rich I am sure; when a man has once got his name in a banking-house he rolls in money; but they do not know what to do with it, keep very little company, and never go to London but on business.

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Mary had acquired a little artificial importance, by becoming Mrs Charles Musgrove; but Anne, with an elegance of mind and sweetness of character, which must have placed her high with any people of real understanding, was nobody with either father or sister; her word had no weight, her convenience was always to give way-- she was only Anne.

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-- was all that Catherine had to say, for her indiscriminating eye scarcely discerned the colour of the satin; and all minuteness of praise, all praise that had much meaning, was supplied by the general: the costliness or elegance of any room's fitting-up could be nothing to her; she cared for no furniture of a more modern date than the fifteenth century.

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The old face, calm and pleasant as ever; the complexion, quite juvenile in its bloom and clearness; the same smile; the wonted precision and elegance of dress; the white, well-ordered teeth; the delicate hands; the composed and quiet manner; everything as it used to be: no mark of age or passion, envy, hate, or discontent: all unruffled and serene, and quite delightful to behold.

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He also drew up his laws with greater elegance and accuracy than even any of our present legislators.

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She managed her surroundings with elegance. Her flat was always neat and cheerful, gay with flowers, and the chintzes in the drawing-room, notwithstanding their severe design, were bright and pretty.

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"I cannot admit it," said Sergey Ivanovitch, with his habitual clearness, precision of expression, and elegance of phrase.

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The writers of the reigns of Anne and George I called their period the Augustan Age, because they flattered themselves that with them English life and literature had reached a culminating period of civilization and elegance corresponding to that which existed at Rome under the Emperor Augustus.

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Maggie perceived that Pete brought forth all his elegance and all his knowledge of high-class customs for her benefit.