graceful

English

Alternative forms

• gracefull (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English graceful; equivalent to grace +‎ -ful.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹeɪsfʊl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

graceful (comparative more graceful, superlative most graceful)

1. Having or showing grace in movement, shape, or proportion.

   Hyponym: dexterous

   She is a graceful dancer.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. […]   The bed was the most extravagant piece.  Its graceful cane halftester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.

2. Magnanimous, lacking arrogance or complaint; gracious.

   The athlete's graceful acceptance of the controversial second-place finish won the admiration of the spectators.

3. (computing) Gradual and non-disruptive.
   • 2009, Dale Liu, Cisco Router and Switch Forensics:

     Bringing a system down cleanly will preserve the operating system and some log files, but again will destroy the contents of the RAM (the volatile data). Windows and Linux are two operating systems that require a graceful shutdown.

Antonyms

• graceless
• clumsy

Derived terms

• graceful degradation
• gracefulness

Related terms

• grace

Translations

showing grace

• Arabic: رَشِيق (rašīq), ظَرِيف (ẓarīf), لَطِيف (laṭīf), صُبَاح (ar) (ṣubāḥ), وَسِيم (ar) (wasīm)
• Bulgarian: грацио́зен (bg) (graciózen), елега́нтен (bg) (elegánten)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 優雅／优雅 (zh) (yōuyǎ), 優美／优美 (zh) (yōuměi)

• Czech: elegantní
• Dutch: elegant (nl), gracieus (nl)
• Esperanto: gracia (eo)
• Estonian: graatsiline, solge
• Finnish: sulava (fi), sulavaliikkeinen, viehättävä (fi), viehkeä (fi), komea (fi), kaunis (fi), upea (fi), uljas (fi)
• French: gracieux (fr)
• German: anmutig (de), ansprechend (de), elegant (de), graziös (de), reizend (de), zierlich (de), huldreich
• Greek: χαριτωμένος (el) (charitoménos), εύχαρις (el) (éfcharis)

  Ancient: ἁβρός (habrós)

• Hungarian: méltóságteljes (hu)
• Irish: spéiriúil
• Italian: elegante (it), aggraziato (it), leggiadro (it), bello (it)
• Japanese: 優雅 (ja) (ゆうが, yūga), 淑やか (ja) (しとやか, shitoyaka)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: لارولەنج (larulenc)

• Ladino: grasiozo, henozo
• Macedonian: грацио́зен (graciózen), елега́нтен (elegánten)
• Maori: huatau
• Persian: باوقار (fa) (bâ-vaqâr)
• Polish: pełen wdzięku, powabny (pl)
• Portuguese: gracioso (pt)
• Russian: грацио́зный (ru) (gracióznyj), изя́щный (ru) (izjáščnyj), элега́нтный (ru) (elegántnyj)
• Scots: gracefu, elegant, cumly, gent, gymp, jimp, gentie, feat
• Serbo-Croatian: graciozan (sh), elegantan (sh), ljubak (sh)
• Spanish: grácil (es), gracioso (es), graciado (es), agraciado (es)
• Swedish: behagfull (sv), elegant (sv), anslående (sv), tilltalende, förtjusande (sv), prydlig (sv)
• Turkish: ağırbaşlı (tr), ince (tr), vakur (tr), zarif (tr)

See also

• gracious

Middle English

Etymology

From grace +‎ -ful.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡraːsful/

Adjective

graceful

1. (rare, Late Middle English) Giving grace; grace-inducing.
2. (rare, Late Middle English) nice, kindly

Descendants

• English: graceful
• Scots: gracefu

References

• “grāceful, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-05-14.