Make Your Point: URBANE

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pronounce URBANE:

ur BANE

connect this word to others:

Urbane people are suave, smooth, sophisticated, cultured, cosmopolitan, polished, and p___ed.

That last synonym more specifically means "exuding a sense of calm grace and confidence, as if with a perfectly balanced body and mind." Can you recall it?

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

"Urbane" traces back to the Latin urbanus, which meant "belonging to a city" but also "elegant, like what you'd find in a city."

We took "urbane" into English in the 1500s and first used it to mean "urban: having to do with a city and not the countryside," then "elegant: having a civil, polite, cultured character." And it's this second meaning that has stuck around.

In other words, urbane people and things are elegant and sophisticated, with smooth, polished manners.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "their urbane manners;" "Their manners were urbane."

Other forms:

The adverb is "urbanely," as in "They greeted us urbanely" and "They were urbanely charming."

And the noun is "urbanity," as in "Nothing could shake the urbanity of their manners."

how to use it:

Pick the formal, semi-common word "urbane" when you want to strike a positive tone as you describe someone who exudes style, polish, politeness, and confidence all at once.

Talk about urbane people and their urbane tastes, speech, manners, and behavior.

Or, to get more abstract, talk about urbane places, events, novels, magazines, works of art, and other things that seem elegant and well-mannered.

examples:

"Off court [the tennis great Novak Djokovic] is urbane and thoughtful, and able to speak fluently in a number of languages."
— Agence France Presse, 31 January 2026

"O'Brien... had a trick of resettling his spectacles on his nose... It was a gesture which recalled an eighteenth-century nobleman offering his snuffbox. Winston... was intrigued by the contrast between O'Brien's urbane manner and his prize-fighter's physique."
— George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949

has this page helped you understand "urbane"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "urbane" without saying "metropolitan" or "polished."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "(Some actor or actress) plays (some character), an urbane (type of person)."

Example 1: "Lauren Holly plays Mary, an urbane young woman in impeccable makeup on her way to pay a ransom to her husband's kidnappers."

Example 2: "[Christopher Plummer] played Sir Charles Litton, an urbane aristocrat suspected of being a jewel thief."
— BBC, 5 February 2021

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "What Are You Implying?"

Build your word-finding muscle as you reach for synonyms with various implications.

For example, what's a synonym for "living thing" that
1. ...implies that someone made it?
2. ...implies that it simply exists?
3. ...implies that it has an intangible essence?

Your answers could be 1. "creature," 2. "being," and 3. "soul."

Try these today:

What's a synonym for "calmness" that
1. ...implies that people have a state of balance within them?
2. ...implies that people have assembled all their pieces into a whole?
3. ...implies that, despite turmoil, people can stand up straight and tall?

To see some possible answers, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. The opposite of URBANE could be

A. COLD or MEAN.
B. RUSTIC or COARSE.
C. GLOBAL or COSMOPOLITAN.

2. Donald Sutherland often played urbane characters: _____.

A. wide-eyed, loving, and whistling
B. gentle, articulate, and sharply dressed
C. grinning, winking, and entering and exiting on a skateboard

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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