English

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from French mot juste.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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mot juste (plural mots justes)

  1. The perfectly appropriate word or phrase for the situation.
    Synonym: winged word
    • 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

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French

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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mot juste m (plural mots justes)

  1. exactly the right word or phrasing

Descendants

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  • English: mot juste

See also

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