WORD OF THE DAY: REPERTOIRE
noun|REP-er-twahr
What It Means
Repertoire typically refers to a list or supply of plays, songs, dances, etc. that a company or person is prepared to perform. Repertoire may also refer to a supply of skills or devices, or more broadly to an amount or supply.
// The band’s repertoire includes both classic and modern jazz.
// The couple enrolled in a cooking class to expand their culinary repertoire.
// His fashion repertoire includes a rotation of vibrant floral tops.
Examples of REPERTOIRE
“[Rebecca] Roudman is best known as the frontwoman for Dirty Cello, a hard-working band that has honed a rollicking repertoire of rock anthems, bluegrass standards and Americana originals.” — Andrew Gilbert, The Mercury News (San Jose, California), 21 Aug. 2025
Did You Know?
The Late Latin noun repertorium, meaning “list,” has given English two words related to the broad range of things that someone or something can do. One is repertory, perhaps most commonly known as a word for a company that presents several different plays, operas, or other works at one theater, as well as the theater where such works are performed. Repertoire, which comes from repertorium via French, once meant the same thing as repertory but later came to refer to the works a company performs, or, in extended use, to a range of skills that a person has, such as the different pitches a baseball pitcher can throw or the particular dishes that are a chef’s specialty.
Merriam Webster Dictionary
