WORD OF THE DAY: PANACHE

WORD OF THE DAY: PANACHE

noun|puh-NAHSH

What It Means

In simplest terms, panache refers to lively grace and style; it appears in contexts in which words like verve and flair are also applied.

// The cast of the play was excellent—even those playing supporting characters acted with great panache.

Examples of PANACHE

“The star appeared as an airline pilot, twirling her way through baggage reclaim while shrugging off a bevy of useless men—a surgeon, a priest, a magician, an astronaut. It made absolutely no sense, but she delivered it with such panache that it barely mattered—even when she ended the performance by pulling a dove out of a top hat.” — Mark Savage et al., BBC, 2 Feb. 2026

Did You Know?

Few literary characters can match the panache of French poet and soldier Cyrano de Bergerac, from Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play of the same name. In his dying moments, Cyrano declares that the one thing left to him is his panache, and that assertion at once demonstrates the meaning of the word and draws upon its history. In both French and English, panache (which traces back to Late Latin pinnaculum, “small wing”) originally referred to a showy, feathery plume on a hat or helmet. Our familiar figurative sense debuted in the first English translation of Rostand’s play, which made the literal plume a metaphor for Cyrano’s unflagging verve even in death. In a 1903 speech Rostand himself described panache: “A little frivolous perhaps, most certainly a little theatrical, panache is nothing but a grace which is so difficult to retain in the face of death, a grace which demands so much strength that, all the same, it is a grace … which I wish for all of us.”

Merriam Webster Dictionary