English Dictionary |
URBANE
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
IPA (US): |
Dictionary entry overview: What does urbane mean?
• URBANE (adjective)
The adjective URBANE has 1 sense:
1. showing a high degree of refinement and the assurance that comes from wide social experience
Familiarity information: URBANE used as an adjective is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Showing a high degree of refinement and the assurance that comes from wide social experience
Synonyms:
Context example:
maintained an urbane tone in his letters
Similar:
sophisticated (having or appealing to those having worldly knowledge and refinement and savoir-faire)
Derivation:
urbanity (polished courtesy; elegance of manner)
Context examples
I attended to all the ghastly formalities, and the urbane undertaker proved that his staff were afflicted—or blessed—with something of his own obsequious suavity.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
"Anyhow he gives large parties," said Jordan, changing the subject with an urbane distaste for the concrete. "And I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any privacy."
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
Learn English with... Proverbs |
"Do not be shy of whom is shameless." (Albanian proverb)
"Hunger is an infidel." (Arabic proverb)
"Gentle doctors cause smelly wounds." (Dutch proverb)