urbane
7
7.0
- adjective
- /ɜrˈbeɪn/
- Formal
:
urbano
- At the dinner party, his urbane demeanor made everyone feel at ease.
- more urbane
Well, who better to decode it than the urbane legend that is Simon Whistler?
- Well, who better to decode it than the urbane legend that is Simon Whistler?
- He's very urbane and comes across as extremely sophisticated.
Examples
-
His was the style—seemingly casual but urbane and wise—that I had long taken as my own model.
Academic text (2009) -
From his office at the UN, Pol Pot's ambassador, the urbane Thereon Parish, continued to speak for Cambodia.
Blog text (18) -
Paul looked across at an urbane gentleman in his mid-forties.
Fiction book (1990) -
Alex was urbane and charming, and asked intelligent questions about my work.
Fiction book (2001) -
He's very urbane and comes across as extremely sophisticated.
-
Well, who better to decode it than the urbane legend that is Simon Whistler?
-
In Dublin, with its busy streets and crowded pubs, Ireland had seemed so civilized, so modern, so urbane.
Fiction book (2000) -
Caesar's writing is witty and urbane and in touch with the latest intellectual currents.
Academic text (2000) -
Sir Paul Spruce took the chair, an urbane and experienced bureaucrat with the rank of Assistant Permanent Secretary to the Cabinet.
Fiction book (1994) -
Latham, aggressively charming and dangerously urbane, had missed no opportunity to patronize his youthful rival.
Fiction book (1990)
Synonyms
19
4.6
Calm, confident, and elegant in public because of experience
4
4.1
Showing elegant, polite manners and good taste
Antonyms
How Sophisticated
Surface Forms
Etymology
Urbane comes from the old Latin word urbanus, which means 'of the city' and is the same root as the English urban ('city'). So urbane suggests the smooth, polite, confident manners people once linked with city life.