svelte

adjective \ ˈsvelt , ˈsfelt \

Updated on: 5 Dec 2017

Definition of svelte

svelter; sveltest

1 a : slender, lithe

b : having clean lines : sleek

2 : urbane, suave

—

sveltely

adverb

—

svelteness

noun

See svelte defined for English-language learners

See svelte defined for kids

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Examples of svelte in a Sentence

She has a svelte figure.
the svelte dancer seemed to float across the stage

Recent Examples of svelte from the Web

Earlier on the red carpet, Perry donned a svelte white dress.

— sarah weldon, PEOPLE.com, "Katy Perry Flies Into MTV VMAs in Moon Person Uniform: 'My Pee Bag Is Kind of Full'," 28 Aug. 2017
Biggest loser: Redshirt freshman offensive lineman Keenen King lost 21 pounds, going from 324 pounds to a svelte 6-foot-4, 303 pounds.

— stefanie loh, The Seattle Times, "There’ll be some new faces donning WSU’s No. 9 and No. 21 jerseys this year," 27 July 2017
Kansas senior guard Svi Mykhailiuk reported for the first day of Bill Self’s Basketball Boot Camp at a svelte 6-foot-8, 207 pounds.

— gary bedore, kansascity, "Svi Mykhailiuk tackles Boot Camp after losing 20 pounds. ‘I do eat a lot of salads’," 18 Sep. 2017
The three musicians have grown from talented tweens to svelte, beyond-hansom thirty somethings.

— doug maccash, NOLA.com, "Hanson's 25th anniversary tour floods the Joy with joy in New Orleans," 17 Sep. 2017
Given the envelope, the Odyssey was never going to look svelte.

— dan neil, WSJ, "Honda Odyssey: The Gas-Powered Marital Aid," 10 Aug. 2017
At Audi’s claimed curb weight of 3946 pounds, this RS4 station wagon is no lightweight, but it is said to be 176 pounds more svelte than its predecessor despite added safety and comfort equipment.

— jens meiners, Car and Driver, "2018 Audi RS4 Avant: A Most Capacious Ass Kicker," 12 Sep. 2017
For something smaller, try the new Asus ZenBook Flip S (UX370), which measures a svelte 10.9mm thin and weighs a mere 1.1 kg.

— mark walton, Ars Technica, "Asus Zenbook Flip laptops get quad-core Intel CPUs and discrete graphics," 30 Aug. 2017
From Grindr to Scruff, Hornet to Jack’d, the digital platforms are best known for dredging up flakey users, svelte-only fat-shamers, masc-4-masc femme-phobes, and it’s-a-personal-preference racists.

— brandon tensley, Slate Magazine, "Grindr and Other Gay Dating Apps Want to Create Connections Beyond the Bedroom," 23 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'svelte.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Svelte came to us, by way of French, from Italian svelto, which itself comes from the Italian verb svellere, meaning "to pluck out" or "to pull or stretch out." In English svelte has been used since the early 19th century to describe a slender appearance, as in A.B. Granville's 1838 description of a countess who was "tall, svelte, pale, and interesting." By the 20th century, English speakers had stretched the word's meaning to suggest an urbane or suave nature—as poet Ezra Pound did when he described "svelte Verona," a city he visited in north Italy.

Origin and Etymology of svelte

French, from Italian svelto, from past participle of svellere to pluck out, modification of Latin evellere, from e- + vellere to pluck — more at vulnerable

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: circa 1817

See Words from the same year