Word.ws English Dictionary

en clair

en clair adverb: in the clear; without any encryption.

Adverb

en clair (not comparable)

  1. In the clear; without any encryption.
    • So it was that Chartier was forced to telegramme en clair, meaning that his contacts with Vichy were open for all to read and were thus largely confined to run-of-the-mill information.2003, Nicholas Atkin, “Agents consulaires or agents provocateurs?”, in The Forgotten French: Exiles in the British Isles, 1940–44, Manchester; New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN...
    • As per Berchtold's instructions, Giesl stopped in the border town of Semlin and wired the news immediately, en clair, such that Tisza, in Budapest, learned of Serbia's rejection even before 7 PM.2014, Sean McMeekin, 7/1/2014: Countdown to War, page 201

Origin of en clair

Borrowed from French en clair.

Questions about en clair

What does en clair mean?
En clair means in the clear; without any encryption.
What part of speech is en clair?
En clair is an adverb.

Words near en clair in the dictionary

  1. en bloc clips
  2. en brochette
  3. en brosse
  4. en cabochon
  5. en caul
  6. en clair
  7. en coup de sabre
  8. en creux
  9. en croix
  10. en dash
  11. en dashes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: en clair (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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