Dictionary Definition
elegance n : a refined quality of gracefulness
and good taste [ant: inelegance]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Noun
- Grace,
refinement, and
beauty in movement, appearance, or manners
- The bride was elegance personified
- Restraint and
grace of style
- The simple dress had a quiet elegance
- Scientific
exactness and precision
- The proof of the theorem had a pleasing elegance
Related terms
Translations
Extensive Definition
Elegance is the attribute of being unusually
effective and simple. It is frequently used as a standard of
tastefulness, particularly in the areas of visual
design and decoration. Elegant things
exhibit refined grace and
dignified propriety.
Some westerners associate elegance with simplicity and consistency of design,
focusing on the main or basic features of an object, its dignified
gracefulness, or restrained beauty of style.
Others understand the word in an opulent light as
in tasteful richness of design or ornamentation "the sumptuous
elegance of the furnishings."
The proof
of a mathematical theorem is considered to have
mathematical
elegance if it is surprisingly simple yet effective and
constructive; similarly, a computer
program or algorithm
is elegant if it uses a small amount of intuitive code to great
effect.
In engineering, a solution may be considered
elegant if it uses a non-obvious method to produce a solution which
is highly effective and simple. An elegant solution may solve
multiple problems at once, especially problems not thought to be
inter-related.
Visual stimuli are frequently considered elegant
if a small number of colors and stimuli are used,
emphasizing the remainder.
See also
elegance in German: Eleganz
elegance in Russian: Элегантность
elegance in Simple English: Elegance
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Babylonian splendor, acquired taste, amenities, appreciation of
excellence, arabesque,
attractiveness,
baroque, baroqueness, beauteousness, beautifulness, beauty, beauty unadorned,
bloom, breeding, brilliance, charm, cheeseparing, chic, chinoiserie, choiceness, civilities, civility, civilized taste,
civilizedness,
clothes-consciousness, comity, convention, courtliness, coxcombry, cultivated taste,
cultivation,
culture, daintiness, dandyism, decencies, decency, decorousness, decorum, delicacy, dignity, diplomatic code,
discrimination,
ease, economy, economy of assumption,
economy of means, elaborateness, elegancies, etiquette, euphemism, euphuism, excellence, exquisite
manners, exquisiteness, facility, fanciness, fastidiousness, fineness, finesse, flamboyance, floridity, floridness, flow, floweriness, fluency, foppery, foppishness, formalism, formalities, formality, frugality, genteelness, gentility, gentlemanlikeness,
gentlemanliness,
gentleness, glory, glow, good breeding, good form,
good manners, good taste, goody-goodness, goody-goodyism, gorgeousness, grace, gracefulness, gracility, graciosity, graciousness, grandeur, grandiosity, grandness, handsomeness, imposingness, impressiveness, jauntiness, ladylikeness, lavishness, law of parsimony,
loveliness, lushness, luxuriance, luxuriousness, luxury, magnificence, majesty, manners, modesty, mores, moresque, nattiness, natural politeness,
neatness, niceness, nicety, nobility, ostentation, overelaborateness,
overelegance,
overniceness,
overornamentation,
overpreciseness,
overrefinement,
parsimoniousness,
parsimony, pedantry, pinching, plushness, poetry, point of etiquette,
polish, politeness, politesse, poshness, preciosity, preciousness, precisianism, prettiness, proprieties, propriety, protocol, proudness, pudency, pudicity, pulchritude, punctilio, purism, quality, quiet good manners,
refinement, resplendence, richness, ritziness, rococo, rules of conduct,
scrimping, seemliness, shame, sharpness, skimping, sleekness, smartness, smoothness, social code,
social conduct, social graces, social procedures, social usage,
sophistication,
spiffiness, splendidness, splendiferousness,
splendor, state, stateliness, stinting, style, subtlety, sumptuousness, taste, tastefulness, the
beautiful, trimness