Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Slender or graceful in figure or outline; slim.
Wiktionary
WordNet 3.0
- adj. being of delicate or slender build
- adj. moving and bending with ease
- adj. showing a high degree of refinement and the assurance that comes from wide social experience
Etymologies
- From French svelte, from Italian svelto ("stretched out"), from Vulgar Latin exvellere: ex + vellere ("to pluck, stretch"). (Wiktionary)
- French, from Italian svelto, from past participle of svellere, to stretch out, from Vulgar Latin *exvellere, from Latin ēvellere : ē, ex-, ex- + vellere, to pull. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Meanwhile, making me feel nice and svelte is Kenneth Brumley, half a ton and taking in 30,000 calories a day.”
“Shed never been what you might call svelte, but then she had left town and gone to live in Baltimore, and by the time she came back shed piled on the pounds.”
“Nashville, where she lives with husband Keith Urban looking remarkably svelte, which is all the more amazing as she gave birth just ten days ago.”
“Boldly defying his own "svelte" President, Crawford called upon his nation to enter the fat race, concluding with a rousing echo of Churchill:”
“They have to beat around the bush and chase their friends to the swamps by throwing things like "svelte" at them.”
“Our server was Chenoa, who I’ve already described as a svelte-er, softer, smarter version of Kelly Osbourne.”
“The Swedish blonde for whom the word 'svelte' seems especially fitting, she crafted iconic portraits with Horst P. Horst,”
“So the netbook proved the market for, not necessarily thin-client, but a sort of "svelte" client-a slimmed down ...”
“He, like Jenkins, would have to bulk up from his "svelte" 265 to stay on the line.”
“It looks nothing like the kind of svelte, compact instrument that - perhaps on a mission planned for launch in 2018 - could travel the millions of kilometres from Earth to Mars and operate without a hitch on the planet's harsh surface.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘svelte’.
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Words
phantasmagoria, eviscerate, avast, simulacrum, varicose, oblique, gestalt, ersatz, vernal, vivace, stellate, synecdoche and 330 more...
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wallace
Remington, Windsor, prorector, wen, aver, mottle, seltzer, tepee, lapidary, effete, sotto, presbyopia and 355 more...
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Words For Novel (Part 2)
fable, sprite, syphilitic, anvil, wonderstruck, vertigo, bridled, tufted, fettered, savvy, tweed fedora, tryst and 255 more...
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truman486's list
Masterbatory Aids
ensorcelled, scintilla, maudlin, lugubrious, frisson, praxis, copasetic, crotch, corollary, bandy, undulating, anthropomorphic and 65 more...
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Words to describe behavior
aberrant, hubris, calumny, sequester, ebullient, malfeasance, salubrious, foible, mercurial, laconic, fugacity, recalcitrant and 7 more...
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apophenia34's list
apophenia, svelte, coriolis effect, misoneism, pulchritude, sycophant, insouciance, chagrined, neuropsychiatorium, caldé, for, silk
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fredrx's beautiful sounding list
two most beautiful words when put together
womb, philistine, poignant, wombastic, eschelon, macabre, precipitous, panache, misogynist, placebo, cacophony, aplomb and 43 more...
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Favorite Words
pablum, maundy, histrionic, adamant, ascribe, verbiage, insouciant, erudite, gregarious, superfluous, banal, obdurate and 280 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 476 more...
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Real words that I love
Words that make me happy in my pants AND have a place in the dictionary.
enervate, efficacious, basilisk, minotaur, elfin, elephantine, schadenfreude, enigma, emasculate, acidic, appalling, ridiculous and 102 more...
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Descriptive
The present, the future. Goals, wishes, hopes.
capricious, sericeous, sleek, flawless, charming, skilled, long-haired, versatile, beautiful, witty, fair, thin and 145 more...
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Vocabulary
Words I come across while reading.
talus, echelon, onanistic, cabochon, avocation, charnel, moue, portentous, prolixity, astringent, hoary, patina and 165 more...
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word list!!!!
lagniappe
syzygy, bloviate, lagniappe, laconic, condign, umbrage, susurrus, thaumaturgy, capacious, capitulate, glower, repast and 179 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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random
words I read but don't know
nascent, proxy, desultory, charlatan, churlish, emaciated, gaudy, shill, lurid, frisson, marauding, plunder and 610 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for svelte.

plethora I think this is a really sexy word. I don't know why. Aug 2, 2008
케발컨 I think it has too many meanings to use correctly. For example, svelte means that you are refined, but it also means you are lean(lacking excess flesh). But, you can also be fat and be svelte, right? Aug 2, 2008
chained_bear Googling reveals several rock bands called Svelte. One has lyrics on its website. Cool. Feb 3, 2007