Word.ws English Dictionary

chef d'œuvre

UK/ˌʃeɪˈdɜː.v(ɹə)/US/ˌʃɛdˈəːv/

chef d'œuvre noun: a piece of work that has been given much critical praise, especially one considered the greatest work of a person's career.

Noun

chef d'œuvre (plural chefs d'œuvre)

  1. A piece of work that has been given much critical praise, especially one considered the greatest work of a person's career.
    • It was there that the Romans exposed their chefs-d’œuvre of painting and of sculpture.1807, [Germaine] de Staël Holstein, translated by D[ennis] Lawler, “[Book IV. Rome.] Chap[ter] V.”, in Corinna; or, Italy. […], volume I, London: […] Corri, […]; and sold by Colburn, […], and...
    • I shall have a bottle of the old Burgundy, and tell Chloe he must exert himself to send me up some slight chef-d'œuvre for supper: I am sure that one needs something, after so much annoyance!1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Truth of Presentiments”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 307
  2. A work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship.
  3. A work created in order to qualify as a master craftsman and member of a guild.

Synonyms of chef d'œuvre

Forms of chef d'œuvre

pluralchefs d'œuvre
alternative formchef d'oeuvre
alternative formchef-d'oeuvre
alternative formchef-d'œuvre

Origin of chef d'œuvre

Unadapted borrowing from French chef-d'œuvre.

Questions about chef d'œuvre

What does chef d'œuvre mean?
Chef d'œuvre means a piece of work that has been given much critical praise, especially one considered the greatest work of a person's career.
What part of speech is chef d'œuvre?
Chef d'œuvre is a noun.
How do you pronounce chef d'œuvre?
Chef d'œuvre is pronounced /ˌʃeɪˈdɜː.v(ɹə)/ (UK).
What is the plural of chef d'œuvre?
The plural of chef d'œuvre is chefs d'œuvre.

Words near chef d'œuvre in the dictionary

  1. cheezes
  2. cheezie
  3. cheezies
  4. chef
  5. chef d'oeuvre
  6. chef d'œuvre
  7. chef de cuisine
  8. chef de mission
  9. chef de partie
  10. chef de rang
  11. Chef Mic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chef d'œuvre (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “chef d'œuvre.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chef_d%27%C5%93uvre. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.