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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A subtle or slight degree of difference, as in meaning, feeling, or tone; a gradation.
  2. n. Expression or appreciation of subtle shades of meaning, feeling, or tone: a rich artistic performance, full of nuance.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Any one of the different gradations by which a color passes from its lightest to its darkest shade; a shade of difference or variation in a color.
  2. n. A delicate degree of difference in anything, as perceived by any of the senses or by the intellect: as, nuances of sound or of expression.
  3. n. In music:
  4. n. A shading or coloring of a phrase or passage by variations either of tempo or of force. Such effects are often indicated by various arbitrary marks or by Italian or other terms, called marks of expression, but the more delicate are left to the taste and skill of the performer. The treatment of subtle nuances is the test of executive and artistic power.
  5. n. A florid vocal passage; fioritura.
  6. To shade and give delicate tones of expression to, as a piece of music or a picture.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A minor distinction.
  2. n. Subtlety or fine detail.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A shade of difference; a delicate gradation.
  2. n. A small difference in meaning, significance, or expression.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude

Etymologies

  1. French, from Old French, from nuer, to shade, cloud, from nue, cloud, from Vulgar Latin *nūba, from Latin nūbēs.

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‘nuance’ has been looked up 4926 times, loved by 15 people, added to 76 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 8.