Word of the Day

: July 12, 2023

forte

noun FOR-tay

What It Means

Forte refers to something that a person does well, or in other words, a person’s strong point.

// It was no surprise that she got accepted to the performing arts school; dancing was always her forte.

See the entry >

forte in Context

“Rallying is what [tennis player, Sienna] Watts sees as her forte, especially with her ability to tire out her opponent. ‘I think a lot of people think I’m very fast because I can get to most of the balls,’ Watts said. ‘I try to move people around in hitting short shots followed by longer shots.’” — Matthew Ehler, M Live (Grand Rapids, Michigan), 26 May 2023

Did You Know?

En garde! When English speakers borrowed the word forte from French in the 17th century, it referred to the strongest part of the blade of a fencing sword, the section between the middle and the hilt. (The word’s ultimate source is the French adjective fort, meaning “strong.”) Forte was perfectly suited for metaphorical use, and it quickly came to refer to the strong point of a person, in addition to the strong point of a blade. (The word has its counterpoint in foible, which comes from an obsolete form of the French word faible, “weak,” and refers both to the weakest part of a sword blade and to a person’s weak point.) There is some controversy over how to correctly pronounce forte. Common choices in American English are “FOR-tay” and “for-TAY,” but many usage commentators recommend matching it to fort, since the e is not pronounced in French. Whichever you choose has no bearing on its meaning, however, and therefore should run you no risk of someone (say, an avenging duelist) commenting: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”