verve

CEFRC2

/vɜːv/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    Energy, excitement, and enthusiasm.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A particular skill in writing.

Examples

  • Her verve stayed with her well into her old age.

  • Tom's got a lot of verve, it's going to carry him to success.

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
3
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meaning

  1. Enthusiasm, rapture, spirit, or vigour, especially of imagination such as that which animates an artist, musician, or writer, in composing or performing.

More examples

In context

  • His hands were strong and elegant; his experience of life evidently varied; his speech full of pith and verve; his manners forward, but perfectly presentable.

  • After spending so much of the season looking upwards, the swashbuckling style and swagger of early season Spurs was replaced by uncertainty and frustration against a Norwich side who had the quality and verve to take advantage.

  • If he be above Virgil, and is reſolv'd to follow his own Verve (as the French call it,) the Proverb will fall heavily upon him; Who teaches himſelf, has a Fool for his Maſter.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The dancer performed with such blank that the audience cheered loudly last night.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Borrowed from French verve (“animation; caprice, whim; rapture; spirit; vigour; type of expression”), probably from Late Latin verva, a variant of Latin verba (“words; discourse; expressions; language”), the plural of verbum (“word”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *werh₁- (“to say, speak”). Doublet of verb and word.