elegance

From Middle French élégance, from Latin ēlegantia (“exquisiteness; refinement, elegance”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛl.ɪ.ɡəns/

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• Hyphenation: el‧e‧gance

elegance (usually uncountable, plural elegances)

1. Grace, refinement, and beauty in movement, appearance, or manners.

   The bride was elegance personified.

2. Restraint and grace of style.

   The simple dress had a quiet elegance.

3. The beauty of an idea characterized by minimalism and intuitiveness while preserving exactness and precision.

   The proof of the theorem had a pleasing elegance.

4. (countable, dated) A refinement or luxury.
   • 1852, Various, Young Americans Abroad‎:

     As to the comforts and elegances of life, we have enough of them for our good.

   • 1881, Isaac D'Israeli, Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1‎:

     At Rome, when Sallust was the fashionable writer, short sentences, uncommon words, and an obscure brevity, were affected as so many elegances.

   • 1909, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 10, in The Governors‎:

     Phineas Duge […] was, for a man of affairs and an American, singularly fond of the small elegances of life. Although he sat alone at dinner, the table was heaped with choice flowers and carefully selected hothouse fruit.

• elegant

• IPA^(key): [ˈɛlɛɡant͡sɛ]

elegance f

1. elegance

• elegance in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• elegance in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989
• elegance in Internetová jazyková příručka