panache

noun

pa·​nache pə-ˈnash  -ˈnäsh 

1

: an ornamental tuft (as of feathers) especially on a helmet

The palace guard had a panache on his helmet.

2

: dash or flamboyance in style and action : verve

flashed his … smile and waved with the panache of a big-city mayor

—Joe Morgenstern

Illustration of panache

• panache 1

Did you know?

Few literary characters can match the panache of French poet and soldier Cyrano de Bergerac, from Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play of the same name. In his dying moments, Cyrano declares that the one thing left to him is his panache, and that assertion at once demonstrates the meaning of the word and draws upon its history. In both French and English, panache (which traces back to Late Latin pinnaculum, “small wing”) originally referred to a showy, feathery plume on a hat or helmet; our familiar figurative sense debuted in the first English translation of Rostand’s play, which made the literal plume a metaphor for Cyrano’s unflagging verve even in death. In a 1903 speech Rostand himself described panache: “A little frivolous perhaps, most certainly a little theatrical, panache is nothing but a grace which is so difficult to retain in the face of death, a grace which demands so much strength that, all the same, it is a grace … which I wish for all of us.”

Examples of panache in a Sentence

She played the role of hostess with great panache.

Recent Examples on the Web

And despite the overt inflation in almost every regard, Cadillac clearly believes the uncompromising urban buyer who wants power, panache, and plenty of room for the fam will eventually decide to go electric. —Michael Teo Van Runkle, Ars Technica, 17 Mar. 2025

Using the serial killer as a metaphor for trauma has rarely been done with more panache. —S.a. Cosby, New York Times, 22 Feb. 2025

Sure, there had been shows that broke the fourth wall, but none did so with quite the same conspiratorial panache as Phoebe Waller-Bridge, delivering her straight-to-camera confessions with winking glee and singular wit. —Taylor Antrim, Vogue, 31 Jan. 2025

Gaga belongs as much to the worldview of millennial and zoomer Monsters as to the school of Carol Channing, a master of comic absurdism and musical-theater panache. —Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 11 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle French pennache, from Old Italian pennacchio, from Late Latin pinnaculum small wing — more at pinnacle

First Known Use

1553, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for panache

• backwash
• downwash
• mouthwash
• outwash
• whitewash
• bosh
• frosh
• gosh
• josh
• posh
• quash
• slosh

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