Word.ws English Dictionary

je ne sais quoi

UK/ˌʒə nə seɪ ˈkwɑː/US/ˌʒə nə seɪ ˈkwɑ/

je ne sais quoi noun: an indefinable quality that makes something distinctive or attractive.

Noun

je ne sais quoi (plural je ne sais quoi)

  1. An indefinable quality that makes something distinctive or attractive.
    • She has a certain je ne sais quoi about her.
    • "Say, you others, I find that the Englishman has something of truly distinguished in the voice, something of sympathetic, of touching—something of je ne sais quoi!" Bouchardy: "Yes, yes—something of je ne sais quoi! That's the very phrase— […]"1894, George du Maurier, “Part Second”, in Trilby: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 85

Forms of je ne sais quoi

pluralje ne sais quoi

Origin of je ne sais quoi

Borrowed from French je ne sais quoi (literally “I don't know what”).

Words that rhyme with je ne sais quoi

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about je ne sais quoi

What does je ne sais quoi mean?
Je ne sais quoi means an indefinable quality that makes something distinctive or attractive.
What part of speech is je ne sais quoi?
Je ne sais quoi is a noun.
How do you pronounce je ne sais quoi?
Je ne sais quoi is pronounced /ˌʒə nə seɪ ˈkwɑː/ (UK).
What is the plural of je ne sais quoi?
The plural of je ne sais quoi is je ne sais quoi.

Words near je ne sais quoi in the dictionary

  1. JDT
  2. JDWP
  3. JE
  4. Je Khenpo
  5. je ne sais qua
  6. je ne sais quoi
  7. Jeacock
  8. Jeadine
  9. Jeaffreson
  10. jeah
  11. jeal

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: je ne sais quoi (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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