fin-de-siecle
fin-de-siecle is the alternative spelling of fin de siècle.
Meaning of fin de siècle
Adjective
fin de siècle (not comparable)
- Pertaining to the close of the 19th century, usually suggesting a literary and artistic climate of modernism, world-weariness, and self-indulgence.
- The fin-de-siècle phenomenon has, of course, received considerable attention from historians in the recent past—a testament to its appeal. […] They also tend to concentrate on individual as well as social alienation as particularly characteristic of the fin-de-siècle feeling.1990, Mikulas Teich, Roy Porter, Fin de Siècle and Its Legacy, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 3
- Pertaining to the close of the 20th (or any other) century.
- And, Dag, have you ever noticed that your bungalow looks more like it belongs to a pair of Eisenhower era Allentown, Pennsylvania newlyweds than it does to a fin de siècle existentialist poseur?1991, Douglas Coupland, “Eat Your Parents”, in Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press, →OCLC, page 85
Questions about fin-de-siecle
- What is fin-de-siecle the alternative spelling of?
- Fin-de-siecle is the alternative spelling of fin de siècle.
Words near fin-de-siecle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fin-de-siecle (page history and authors); fin de siècle (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: “fin-de-siecle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fin-de-siecle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
