Synonym Chooser

How does the adjective gauche contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of gauche are awkward, clumsy, inept, and maladroit. While all these words mean "not marked by ease (as of performance, movement, or social conduct)," gauche implies the effects of shyness, inexperience, or ill breeding.

felt gauche and unsophisticated at formal parties

When is it sensible to use awkward instead of gauche?

The words awkward and gauche can be used in similar contexts, but awkward is widely applicable and may suggest unhandiness, inconvenience, lack of muscular control, embarrassment, or lack of tact.

periods of awkward silence

Where would clumsy be a reasonable alternative to gauche?

The synonyms clumsy and gauche are sometimes interchangeable, but clumsy implies stiffness and heaviness and so may connote inflexibility, unwieldiness, or lack of ordinary skill.

a clumsy mechanic

When would inept be a good substitute for gauche?

While in some cases nearly identical to gauche, inept often implies complete failure or inadequacy.

a hopelessly inept defense attorney

In what contexts can maladroit take the place of gauche?

The words maladroit and gauche are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, maladroit suggests a tendency to create awkward situations.

a maladroit politician

Example Sentences

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.
Recent Examples of gauche For a scene at the iconically gauche-glam nightclub and restaurant Tatiana — where the surf and turf will run you $99 — only five crew members went inside. Daniel D'addario, Variety, 4 Oct. 2024 The reason is very simple—the Noto palazzo was very gauche and fit for the party later in the season, to be thrown by Hollander’s character. Charlie Hobbs, Condé Nast Traveler, 9 Dec. 2022 That would be too gauche, too legislative for the court. Matt Ford, The New Republic, 19 May 2022 Dear Looking: Greeting your host with your Gladware out and at the ready is definitely gauche. Amy Dickinson, Detroit Free Press, 28 Oct. 2021 See All Example Sentences for gauche
Recent Examples of Synonyms for gauche
Adjective
  • My seat is hard and uncomfortable.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 7 Nov. 2025
  • Whoever dispatched that ambulance might be one of many employees at the Department of Emergency Communications who have felt uncomfortable, yelled at and trapped between their calling to help people and what several current and former dispatchers have called a hostile work environment.
    Kirsten Fiscus, Nashville Tennessean, 6 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • Insert one very awkward stalemate between the pair here.
    Emlyn Travis, Entertainment Weekly, 31 Oct. 2025
  • Lisa Frankenstein centers on awkward and antisocial high schooler Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) after the violent demise of her mother.
    Bailey Richards, PEOPLE, 31 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • For starters, even at 4 mm by 4 mm, the Utah array would be too big and clumsy a hunk of hardware for Science to implant in the eye or Synchron to thread through a vein.
    Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 6 Nov. 2025
  • What resulted is one of the most comic, counterproductive, and clumsy episodes in the long history of British efforts to deal with Ireland.
    The New Yorker, New Yorker, 29 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Rather than offering peace of mind from pest invasion, the chemical control process often leaves families feeling uneasy about what has been introduced so indiscriminately into their environment.
    Malana VanTyler, USA Today, 6 Nov. 2025
  • Cuomo led early polls, buoyed by name recognition and a coalition of moderate Democrats uneasy with the party’s leftward drift.
    Nik Popli, Time, 5 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • While the person being filmed is embarrassed, the one filming walks away with a reputation and clout.
    Eli Thompson, Rolling Stone, 25 Oct. 2025
  • The narrator and her friend seem slightly embarrassed at the possibility of being overheard—seeing the couple perhaps reminds them that Americans are not simply an idea on a page or in a newspaper headline, but actual people.
    Rhian Sasseen, The Atlantic, 22 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Gauche.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gauche. Accessed 8 Nov. 2025.

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