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ELEGANT
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Refined and tasteful in appearance or behavior or style
Example:
an elegant mathematical solution--simple and precise and lucid
Classified under:
Similar:
dandified; dandyish; foppish (affecting extreme elegance in dress and manner)
de luxe; deluxe; luxe (elegant and sumptuous)
fine (characterized by elegance or refinement or accomplishment)
high-class; high-toned (pretentiously elegant)
exquisite; recherche (lavishly elegant and refined)
ritzy (luxuriously elegant)
soigne; soignee (polished and well-groomed; showing sophisticated elegance)
Also:
dignified (having or expressing dignity; especially formality or stateliness in bearing or appearance)
graceful (characterized by beauty of movement, style, form, or execution)
refined ((used of persons and their behavior) cultivated and genteel)
sophisticated (having or appealing to those having worldly knowledge and refinement and savoir-faire)
tasteful (having or showing or conforming to good taste)
Antonym:
inelegant (lacking in refinement or grace or good taste)
Derivation:
elegance (a refined quality of gracefulness and good taste)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Displaying effortless beauty and simplicity in movement or execution
Example:
an elegant mathematical solution -- simple and precise
Classified under:
Similar:
graceful (characterized by beauty of movement, style, form, or execution)
Derivation:
elegance (a quality of neatness and ingenious simplicity in the solution of a problem (especially in science or mathematics))
Sense 3
Meaning:
Suggesting taste, ease, and wealth
Synonyms:
elegant; graceful; refined
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
gracious (characterized by charm, good taste, and generosity of spirit)
Derivation:
elegance (a refined quality of gracefulness and good taste)
Context examples:
Choose an elegant restaurant where you won’t likely run into friends or neighbors.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
The Basenji is a small, elegant, athletic dog about the size of a fox terrier, with a smooth shiny coat of copper, red, black and tan, black and brindle.
(Basenji, NCI Thesaurus)
Remarkably, these engineering researchers developed this first mathematical proof, which shows that the elegant shape folded from concentrically pleated squares is invariantly a hyperbolic paraboloid, said Nakhiah Goulbourne, NSF program director for Mechanics of Materials and Structures.
(Saddle-shaped origami enables new microelectronic applications, National Science Foundation)
That was comfortable and elegant, and all my suspicions rose into a fierce bitter flame when I saw that on the mantelpiece stood a copy of a full-length photograph of my wife, which had been taken at my request only three months ago.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
A closet was filled with wine; the plate was of silver, the napery elegant; a good picture hung upon the walls, a gift (as Utterson supposed) from Henry Jekyll, who was much of a connoisseur; and the carpets were of many plies and agreeable in colour.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
The other, dark, clear-cut, and elegant, hardly yet of middle age, and endowed with every beauty of body and of mind, was the Right Honourable Trelawney Hope, Secretary for European Affairs, and the most rising statesman in the country.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The way heat flows across bamboo cell walls has been mapped using advanced scanning thermal microscopy, providing a new understanding of how variations in thermal conductivity are linked to the bamboo’s elegant structure.
(Visualising heat flow in bamboo could help design more energy-efficient and fire-safe buildings, University of Cambridge)
Therefore, to use the expressive, if not elegant, language of a schoolgirl, "He was as nervous as a witch and as cross as a bear".
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
“Mr. Crawford was a most pleasant, gentleman-like man; his sister a sweet, pretty, elegant, lively girl.”
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Except the Sucklings and Bragges, there is not such another nursery establishment, so liberal and elegant, in all Mrs. Elton's acquaintance.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
