Word.ws English Dictionary

eminence grise

eminence grise is the alternative spelling of éminence grise.

Meaning of éminence grise

Noun

éminence grise (plural éminences grises or éminence grises)

  1. (idiomatic) A secret or unofficial decision-maker.
    • But Harry Hopkins was no mere manipulator of people and ideas, no eminence grise masterminding the actions of figureheads.1987 July 12, John A[rthur] Garraty, “Harry’s Luck [book review of Harry Hopkins: Ally of the Poor and Defender of Democracy by George McJimsey]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York...

Forms of eminence grise

pluraleminences grises
pluraleminence grises

Questions about eminence grise

What is eminence grise the alternative spelling of?
Eminence grise is the alternative spelling of éminence grise.

Words near eminence grise in the dictionary

  1. eminectomy
  2. Eminem
  3. Eminemesque
  4. Eminems
  5. eminence
  6. eminence grise
  7. eminence grises
  8. eminences
  9. eminences grises
  10. eminencies
  11. eminency

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: eminence grise (page history and authors); éminence grise (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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