chic
English · Español · Français · Deutsch · Italiano · Português · Română · Thesaurus
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
chic¹
- /ʃiːk/ UK
- /ʃik/ US
Sounds like sheik, sheikh (one pronunciation) · Rhymes with -iːk
Where it comes from
Borrowed from French chic (“elegant”), which in turn is probably borrowed from German Schick (“elegant appearance; tasteful presentation”). The word is akin to Dutch schielijk (“hasty”), schikken (“to arrange”) and Old English sċēon (“to happen”).
adjective chicer · more chic · chicest · most chic
-
Elegant, stylish.
Mrs. Hominy, sir, is the lady of Major Hominy, one of our chicest spirits; and belongs Toe^([sic]) one of our most aristocratic families.
Similar: chichi, classy, dapper, fashionable, natty, smart, trendy, voguish
Opposite: dowdy, inelegant, unelegant, unchic, unfashionable, unstylish
noun chics
- Good form; style. A little pear-grey glove, dropped and abandoned on the floor, may give its owner's sex and chic to the whole room; whilst an entire house-full of so-called womanly trifles will have only a neuter flavour about them, if chic be not there.
- A person with (a particular type of) chic. It was probably fortunate for him [Bernard Lazare] that the police, who started keeping a fairly regular watch on his activities in April 1893, also inclined towards thinking that he was merely following the fashion of other young ‘bourgeois chics’ (though at times they evidently had second thoughts
chic²
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Yucatec Maya chiʼik (“coati; buffoon”).
noun chics
- A kind of ritual buffoon or clown in Yucatec Maya culture. the chics of Dzitas, Yucatán, if they caught a small boy, removed his clothes and rubbed gunpowder in his anus. In the Yucatec barrio of “Santiago,” the chics amuse crowds by lassoing men and fining them
Chic³
proper noun
- A diminutive of the male given name Charles.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: stylish, swank, voguish, stylishness, modishness, fashionable, smartness, smart, classy, distingue, elegant, elegance, trendy, glamorous, good-looking, handsome
Translations
Talk about this word "chic." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/chic. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. chic. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/chic "chic." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/chic.Cite this
@misc{chic_2026,
title = {chic},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/chic},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
