flaneur

noun

fla·​neur flä-ˈnər How to pronounce flaneur (audio)
variants or less commonly flâneur
: an idle man-about-town

Examples of flaneur in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
But at its heart, Nouvelle Vague is still a Linklater hangout film through and through; his flaneurs this time are just the likes of Godard (Guillaume Marbeck), François Truffaut (Adrien Rouyard), Jean-Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin), and Suzanne Schiffman (Jodie Ruth-Forest). Tomris Laffly, Vogue, 23 Oct. 2025 San Juan, Puerto Rico With its blue cobblestoned streets and homes splashed with cheery pastel colors, Old San Juan is a flaneur’s paradise. Amanda Eyre Ward, Bon Appétit, 19 Mar. 2025 These best-selling books display the trenchant wit of a flaneur strolling through Babylon. Brenda Wineapple, The New York Review of Books, 19 Oct. 2022 Being a flaneur suggests also a freedom—to roam, to go in whichever direction one chooses, unencumbered by the authorities. Anandi Mishra, The Atlantic, 30 July 2022 But the hotel offers plenty of alternatives to dropping your euros, including a Dior spa, a calming pool, and a ground-floor terrace bar for prime flaneur-watching, all designed by LVMH favorite Peter Marino and realized by his squad of about 600 French artisans. Erin Florio, Condé Nast Traveler, 14 Dec. 2021

Word History

Etymology

French flâneur

First Known Use

1854, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of flaneur was in 1854

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Flaneur.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flaneur. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!