de rigueur

Borrowed from French de rigueur (“required”), from de (“of”) + rigueur (“rigour/rigor”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /də ɹɪˈɡɜː(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /də ɹɪˈɡɝ/
• Hyphenation: de ri‧gueur
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

de rigueur (not comparable)

1. Necessary according to etiquette, protocol or fashion.

   Wearing a suit to a job interview is de rigueur.

   This season, the little black dress is de rigueur.

   • 1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     […] his nose—if a sketch of his features be de rigueur for a person of his pretensions—was artistically beautiful enough to have been worth doing in marble by any sculptor not over-busy, […] .

   • 1889, Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], Sylvie and Bruno, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 247:

     […] Lady Muriel—not being one of those lady-singers who think it de rigueur to decline to sing till they have been petitioned three or four times, […] .

   • 1959, Frank Chodorov, The Rise and Fall of Society, Devin-Adair, Chapter 13, page 126:

     It is still de rigueur for the victorious State to add to its exploitable territory at the expense of the conquered.

   • 1995, Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2, New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, →ISBN:

     Not a problem. I lived half my adult life in a country where dropping in unannounced was de rigueur.

   • 2010 May 2, Caspar Llewellyn Smith, “Biffy Clyro: 'We still feel like underdogs”, in The Observer‎^[1]:

     It is often expected of rock stars that they'll sport a ghostly pallor and in this respect Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro doesn't disappoint: as well as a black leather jacket and the de rigueur beard and the tattoos that cover his muscled arms, he blinks into the sunshine as someone barely used to it.

   • 2020 November 4, Paul Bigland, “At no point have I felt unsafe...”, in Rail, page 47:

     All I spot are lots of anglers on the canal at Wigan, indulging in a sport where social distancing is de rigueur!

   • 2024 November 11, Michael Paulson, “Everyone Else Is Giving a Standing Ovation. Do I Have To?”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Zachary Woolfe, our classical music critic, tells me that standing ovations are now de rigueur at opera and symphony performances in the United States, but less so in Europe.

   • 2025 May 10, Rob Copeland, “Elizabeth Holmes’s Partner Has a New Blood-Testing Start-Up”, in The New York Times‎^[3], →ISSN:

     If sequels are de rigueur in the so-called disruptive world of technology, this one is particularly bold.

• As this is a borrowed foreign phrase, it is often italicised.

• IPA^(key): /də ʁi.ɡœʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

de rigueur (invariable)

1. absolutely necessary

   Synonym: de mise