nuance
Other forms: nuanced; nuances
Use nuance to refer to a very small difference in color, meaning, or feeling. What makes singers brilliant is not how loud they can sing a note, but how many nuances they can evoke through their approach.
Pronounced "NOO-ahns," this noun was borrowed from French in the 18th century and derives ultimately from Latin nūbēs "a cloud." Think of clouds––subtle gradations in color to understand this word. When you say a work of art was nuanced, it means there was a lot to it, but incorporated subtly.
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a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude“without understanding the finer nuances you can't enjoy the humor”
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synonyms:
nicety, refinement, shade, subtlety
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type of:
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import, meaning, significance, signification
the message that is intended or expressed or signified
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import, meaning, significance, signification
/ˌnuˈɑns/
/ˈnuɑns/
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Copy citationVocabulary lists containing nuance
When eleven-year-old Tokunbo Marshall moves with her mother into a Harlem brownstone, she must adjust to an extended family that includes three new sisters who see everything in life as a possible project in their self-designed education.
Twelve-year old Charlotte Lockard lives in Pennsylvania while eleven-year-old Benjamin Boxer lives in Louisiana, but they connect through an online Scrabble game and their shared troubles.
In this fifth and final book of the series The Trials of Apollo, Lester must defeat Nero without causing massive collateral damage to Manhattan.
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