mot juste

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French mot juste.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /məʊˈʒuːst/ (or as French, below)
• Rhymes: -uːst

Noun

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

perfectly appropriate word or phrase

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 最貼切的字眼／最贴切的字眼 (zuì tiēqiè de zìyǎn)

• Finnish: osuva ilmaus
• French: mot juste m
• German: richtiger / passender / zutreffender Ausdruck m, richtiges / passendes / treffendes Wort n
• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mo ʒyst/

Noun

mot juste m (plural mots justes)

1. exactly the right word or phrasing

Descendants

• → English: mot juste

See also

• bon mot
• calembour
• jeu de mot
• l’esprit de l’escalier
• mot d’esprit