Quaint Meaning
/kweɪnt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjOf a person: cunning, crafty.
adjCleverly made; artfully contrived.
Sentence Examples
His accent sounds a little quaint.
It's a quaint old village.
We stayed in a quaint bed and breakfast by the sea.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The small village is known for its ____ old houses with thatched roofs.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The tourists were charmed by the ____ cobblestone streets and thatched cottages of the village.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English queynte, quoynte, from Anglo-Norman cointe, queinte and Old French cointe (“pretty, clever, knowing”), from Latin cognitus, past participle of cognōscō (“to know”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"But you, my Lord, were glad to be imploy'd, / To shew how queint an Orator you are."
— 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
"describe races and games, / Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields, / Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds, / Bases and tinsel trappings […]."
— 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
"Till that there entered on the other side / A straunger knight, from whence no man could reed, / In quyent disguise, full hard to be descride […]."
— 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
"Lord Gifford, deep beneath the ground, / Heard Alexander's bugle sound, / And tarried not his garb to change, / But, in his wizard habit strange, / Came forth, a quaint and fearful sight; [...]"
— 1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto Third. The Hostel, or Inn.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, stanza XX, page 153:
"What none would dispute though many smiled over was the good-humored, necessary, yet quaint omission of the writer's name from the whole consideration."
— 1924 November 17, Time:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The small village is known for its ____ old houses with thatched roofs.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The tourists were charmed by the ____ cobblestone streets and thatched cottages of the village.