cachet

noun ca·chet \ ka-ˈshā \

Updated on: 17 Apr 2018

1 a : a seal used especially as a mark of official approval

b : an indication of approval carrying great prestige

The president placed his cachet on the project.

2 a : a characteristic feature or quality conferring prestige

regarded the possession of real estate as a cachet of respectability

b : prestige

being rich … doesn't have the cachet it used to
—Truman Capote

3 : a medicinal preparation for swallowing consisting of a case usually of rice-flour paste enclosing a medicine

4 a : a design or inscription on an envelope to commemorate a postal or philatelic event

b : an advertisement forming part of a postage meter impression

c : a motto or slogan included in a postal cancellation (see cancellation 3)

See cachet defined for English-language learners

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Examples of cachet in a Sentence

a movie director with great artistic cachet
His research in Antarctica gave him a certain cachet among other scientists.

Recent Examples of cachet from the Web

Also, administrators know Illinois produces a steady stream of highly qualified young students who can boost their university’s academic cachet.

— dawn rhodes, chicagotribune.com, "Growing brain drain: University of Alabama's gain in drawing Illinois students is a loss for Illinois schools," 6 Apr. 2018
The president and counselors who oversee the Relief Society, which runs activities for women, are considered the most important female leaders based on the organization's historical cachet.

— CBS News, "Mormons make history, tap Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares for top leadership," 31 Mar. 2018
This alchemy of color chips into cultural cachet is largely the work of Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, a small in-house consultancy, founded in 1986.

— bruce falconer, New York Times, "What Is the Perfect Color Worth?," 28 Feb. 2018
But the discount retailer doesn’t have the fashion cachet of competitors such as Target, which is known for popular private brands such as Cat & Jack and its Instagram-friendly collaborations with fashionistas such as Victoria Beckham.

— charisse jones, USA TODAY, "Walmart launches four new clothing brands to compete with Amazon, Target," 27 Feb. 2018
Wes Davenport, an associate marketing and management professor who teaches in the MBA program, said there is a certain cachet that comes with being the largest program.

— jennifer edwards, The Seattle Times, "MBA program boasts state’s highest enrollment," 13 Jan. 2018
There's a certain cachet to New York, Los Angeles and Boston, but the success of the league depends on the development of smaller and newer markets.

— jeremy fuchs, SI.com, "Power Rankings: Are We Headed Toward an Unconventional Stanley Cup Final?," 8 Jan. 2018
Without the trademark fur trim, the new Canada Goose line may struggle to gain the same level of Hollywood cachet amid a gaggle of more established competitors.

— lara o’reilly, WSJ, "CMO Today: Vice and Airbnb Tie-up; Pandora Hires Sling’s Lynch; CEOs Quit Trump Advisory Panel," 15 Aug. 2017
And like Germany recently, France has long had cultural cachet.

— The Economist, "Right and wrong ways to spread languages around the globe," 28 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cachet.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

How do you pronounce cachet?

Two words in English that share a common French root also have important differences in pronunciation and meaning.

Cache means “a place where things are hidden,” a meaning that entered English in the 1700s. It can also mean cache memory, or “a part of a computer’s memory where information is kept so that the computer can find it very quickly.” This word is pronounced \CASH\.

Cachet has several meanings. It can mean “prestige,” “medicine prepared so that it can be swallowed,” or “an official seal,” the oldest meaning of the word in English, first used in the 1600s. It is pronounced \cash-AY\.

Both words derive from the French verb cacher (“to hide”), which is pronounced \cash-AY\. In French, cache is pronounced \CASH\—just as in English. The adjective “hidden” in French is spelled with an accent mark on the e—caché—and is pronounced \cash-AY\. The e without accent mark is silent.

Origin and Etymology of cachet

French, from cacher

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: circa 1639

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year

Other Heraldry Terms

blazon, couchant, dormant, escutcheon, potent, standard, totem

Medical Dictionary

cachet

noun ca·chet \ ka-ˈshā \

: a medicinal preparation for swallowing consisting of a case usually of rice-flour paste containing an unpleasant-tasting medicine — called also wafer, wafer capsule