Debonair

//dɛbəˈnɛɹ// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Debonaire behaviour; graciousness. obsolete

    "But yet, shall my vanity extend only to personals, such as the gracefulness of dress, my debonnaire, and my assurance—Self-taught, self-acquired, these!"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Gracious, courteous. obsolete

    "Let be that Ladie debonaire, / Thou recreant knight, and soone thy selfe prepaire / To battell […]."

  2. 2
    Suave, urbane and sophisticated.

    "“He's doing it wrong! I am much more suave, debonair, and sophisticated than that!” “Yes, Dan, that's a very debonair stain you have on your shirt.” “I'll have you know I have sophistication coming out the wazoo!”"

  3. 3
    Charming, confident, and carefully dressed. especially

    "The hard launch of what appeared to be the hottest new relationship in town – Billanna? Winty? – at the 2023 Met Gala saw Vogue supremo Wintour, who has hosted the Met Gala for 30 years, walk the red carpet arm in arm with the dashing and debonair Love Actually star, a man Clive James named “the nation’s leading male sexpot”."

Adjective
  1. 1
    having a cheerful, lively, and self-confident air wordnet
  2. 2
    having a sophisticated charm wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
affableairybonairbreezybuoyantcarefree

Example

More examples

"Then, aided by his faithful friends Donkey (a talking donkey, of course) and the swashbuckling, debonair Puss-In-Boots, he rescued Princess Fiona from the fire-breathing dragon."

Etymology

From Old French debonaire, from the phrase de bon aire (“of good stock, noble”).

More for "debonair"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.