elegant

From Late Middle English elegaunt, from Middle French elegant, ultimately from Latin ēlegāns.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛl.ə.ɡənt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

elegant (comparative more elegant, superlative most elegant)

1. Characterised by or exhibiting elegance.
   • 2015 October 27, Matt Preston, The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better‎^[1], Plum, →ISBN, page 192:

     You could just use ordinary shop-bought kecap manis to marinade the meat, but making your own is easy, has a far more elegant fragrance and is, above all, such a great brag! Flavouring kecap manis is an intensely personal thing, so try this version now and next time cook the sauce down with crushed, split lemongrass and a shredded lime leaf.

2. Characterised by minimalism and intuitiveness while preserving exactness and precision.

   an elegant solution

   • 2025 February 19, Paul Clifton, “I am absolutely committed to reforming the railway”, in RAIL, number 1029, page 41:

     "For myself, because of the baggage of 30 years of balkanisation, I think the elegant solution is to take operations back into the public sector. It will mean you can have a whole-industry approach to running the railway, unencumbered by contractual differences."

3. (Ireland, colloquial, archaic) Fine; doing well.
   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

     'An' how are ye, Jemmie—how's every inch iv you?' enquired Moggy of the boy, when his agitation was a little blown over.
     'I'm elegant, thank ye,' he answered; 'an' what's the matther wid ye all? I cum through the kitchen, and seen no one.'

• (exhibiting elegance): classy, graceful

• clumsy
• haphazard
• inelegant

• elect
• eligible
• elite

elegant (plural elegants)

1. An elegant parrot.
   • 1895, The Avicultural Magazine, Volume 1, The Avicultural Society for the Study of Foreign and British Birds, page 22:

     But if the Aviarist be ambitious to keep the lovely, but destructive, members of the Parrot family, he must be content with grass alone, because Parrakeets (except the weak-billed Turquoisines and Elegants) would destroy the shrubs and trees in a day.

• angelet

Borrowed from Latin ēlegantem.

• Rhymes: -ant

elegant m or f (masculine and feminine plural elegants)

1. elegant

   Antonym: inelegant

• elegantment

• elegància
• inelegant

• “elegant”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “elegant”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “elegant” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “elegant” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Borrowed from French élégant, from Latin ēlegāns.

• IPA^(key): /eləɡant/, [eləˈɡ̊anˀd̥]

elegant

1. elegant, smart
2. elegant, neat
3. (adverbial) elegantly, smartly, neatly

• uelegant

• “elegant” in Den Danske Ordbog

Borrowed from Middle French elegant.

• IPA^(key): /ˌeːləˈɣɑnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ele‧gant
• Rhymes: -ɑnt

elegant (comparative eleganter, superlative elegantst)

1. elegant

Declension of elegant
uninflected	elegant
inflected	elegante
comparative	eleganter
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		elegant	eleganter	het elegantst het elegantste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	elegante	elegantere	elegantste
	n. sing.	elegant	eleganter	elegantste
	plural	elegante	elegantere	elegantste
definite		elegante	elegantere	elegantste
partitive		elegants	eleganters	—

• sierlijk
• gracieus

• lomp
• plomp

• elegantie

• gelaten

Borrowed from Middle French elegant.

• IPA^(key): /eleˈɡant/, /eləˈɡant/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ant

elegant (strong nominative masculine singular eleganter, comparative eleganter, superlative am elegantesten)

1. elegant

• Elegant
• Eleganz

• “elegant” in Duden online
• “elegant” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

ēlēgant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of ēlēgō

elegant m (feminine singular elegante, masculine plural elegants, feminine plural elegantes)

1. elegant

From Latin elegans, via French élégant.

elegant (neuter singular elegant, definite singular and plural elegante)

1. elegant

• eleganse

• “elegant” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Latin elegans, via French élégant.

elegant (neuter singular elegant, definite singular and plural elegante)

1. elegant

• eleganse

• “elegant” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• alegant (Kuyavia)
• aligant (Podlachia)

Borrowed from French élégant, from Latin ēlegāns.

• IPA^(key): /ɛˈlɛ.ɡant/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛɡant
• Syllabification: e‧le‧gant

elegant m pers (female equivalent elegantka, diminutive elegancik)

1. elegant man

• elegant in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• elegant in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from French élégant, from Latin elegans.

• Audio:

  (file)

elegant m or n (feminine singular elegantă, masculine plural eleganți, feminine and neuter plural elegante)

1. tasteful

From Latin elegans, via French élégant.

• IPA^(key): /ˌɛlɛˈɡant/

• Audio:

  (file)

elegant (comparative elegantare, superlative elegantast)

1. elegant

• elegans c (noun)

elegant c

1. an elegance (person who is (doing something) elegant)

Often a bit tongue-in-cheek.

• elegant in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• elegant in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• elegant in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• legaten