flamboyant means showy, bold or audacious in behaviour, appearance, style, etc.; ostentatious. It carries an Arena rating of 1892, earned across 34 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, flamboyant ranks #416 of 17,135 for Most Malleable Words, #469 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #523 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #544 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
flamboyant is pronounced /flamˈbɔɪ.ənt/.
Why “flamboyant” is a great word
Characterized by strikingly elaborate, colorful, or audacious display in style, appearance, or behavior. From the French flamboyant ("flaming, wavy"), present participle of flamboyer ("to flame"), from Old French flamboier, from flambe ("flame"); first attested in English in 1832 in reference to the flame-like tracery of a style of Gothic architecture. Unlike "ostentatious," which implies vulgar pretension, or "gaudy," which suggests tasteless excess, flamboyant carries the charge of confident, artistic extravagance. It is the unfurled tail of a peacock catching the sun, the lick of gold leaf along a cathedral’s arch, the improvisational flourish of a jazz soloist—a defiant assertion that to exist is to burn, and to burn is to be seen.
Etymology
Borrowed from French flamboyant (“flaming, wavy”), participle of flamboyer (“to flame”), from Old French flamboier, from flambe (“flame”). The architectural style derives its name from the flame-like shapes in the tracery.
adj
- Showy, bold or audacious in behaviour, appearance, style, etc.; ostentatious.
- Referring to the final stage of French Gothic architecture from the 14th to the 16th centuries.e.g.“S. Pierre is a flamboyant church, the details passing into Renaissance.” — 1891, Sabine Baring-Gould, chapter XIX, in In Troubadour-Land: A Ramble in Provence and Languedoc, Avignon:
- Of a blade: forged in a wavy, undulating pattern, like a flame-bladed sword or a kris.
noun
- The royal poinciana (Delonix regia), a showy tropical tree from Madagascar.e.g.“The schooners moored to the quay are trim and neat, the little town along the bay is white and urbane, and the flamboyants, scarlet against the blue sky, flaunt their colour like a cry of passion.” — 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 45, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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