Word.ws English Dictionary

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)

  1. 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
  2. (broadly) 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

See all 3 meanings of fin de siècle

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

  1. fin key
  2. fin keys
  3. fin rot
  4. fin whale
  5. fin whales
  6. fin-de-siecle
  7. fin-de-siècle
  8. fin-foot
  9. fin-footed
  10. fin-foots
  11. fin-like

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.