mot juste
English
Etymology
Borrowed from French mot juste.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 307: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /məʊˈʒuːst/ (or as French, below)
Noun
mot juste (plural mots justes)
- The perfectly appropriate word or phrase for the situation.
- 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter V:
- She legged it, and for a moment silence reigned. Then Bobbie said, “Phew!” and I agreed that “Phew!” was the mot juste.
- 2014 March 23, David Streitfeld, “Web Fiction, Serialized and Social”, in New York Times[1]:
- Wattpad is not the sort of site where writers talk about suffering for their art or spend hours searching for the mot juste.
Translations
perfectly appropriate word or phrase
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French
Pronunciation
Noun
mot juste m (plural mots justes)
See also
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from French
- English terms derived from French
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English multiword terms
- English terms with quotations
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French multiword terms
- French masculine nouns
- French idioms