inelegance
- noun
- /ˌɪnˈɛlɪɡəns/
- Her dress lacked refinement, emphasizing her inelegance at the formal event.
Examples
-
I found the artist's use of colors to be striking, but the overall inelegance of his technique was disappointing.
-
No rude inelegance thy work confounds.
Academic text (2017) -
It keeps one in a continual state of inelegance.
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Sometimes he would not get any farther than the outline in red vitriol before some catastrophic inelegance would force him to start again.
Fiction book (1992) -
When you return, we will discuss in greater detail how her inelegance can be replaced." Claude struggled to understand the Abbe's heartless replies.
Fiction book (1992) -
I was bitterly disappointed by their inelegance: all the bobbles, all the clumsiness, all the heavy-breathing sweatiness.
Academic text (1991) -
Maybe you wanted to say that my EHT or "unified and distinct set of methodological principles" (apologies for the inelegance) is a gerrymandered construct, serving no useful purpose except to discredit philosophy.
Blog text (25) -
The presentation was marred by its lack of structure and overall inelegance.
Synonyms
Poor style that makes people feel uncomfortable
Too much bright decoration on clothes or signs that looks bad
Rude behavior or dress that shows no good taste
A lack of smooth, polite movement or social behavior
A clumsy, awkward way of moving or looking
Lack of polite behavior or good taste
The quality of being inappropriate in behavior or appearance
A way someone acts or looks that seems not proper in public
Antonyms
How Elegant
Surface Forms
Morphology
inelegance = elegance (transparent) = in + eleg + ance
For learners who know 'elegance', adding the negative prefix 'in-' gives the straightforward meaning 'lack of elegance'.
Etymology
Inelegance starts with in- meaning 'not' and comes from elegant, which originally meant 'chosen' or 'picked' and shares the same root as elect. So inelegance is like being 'not chosen' in style — it means lacking grace or good taste.