tour de force plural form

• To save this word, you'll need to log in. Log In

tour de force

Definition of tour de force

Examples of tour de force in a sentence.

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tour de force.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

1802, in the meaning defined above

Dictionary Entries Near tour de force

tour d'horizon

Cite this Entry

“Tour de force.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tour%20de%20force. Accessed 29 Jun. 2024.

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

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the day.

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Plural and possessive names: a guide, your vs. you're: how to use them correctly, every letter is silent, sometimes: a-z list of examples, more commonly mispronounced words, how to use em dashes (—), en dashes (–) , and hyphens (-), popular in wordplay, it's a scorcher words for the summer heat, flower etymologies for your spring garden, 12 star wars words, 'swash', 'praya', and 12 more beachy words, 8 words for lesser-known musical instruments, games & quizzes.

Tour de force

| Grammarist

Tour de force is French for feat of strength . In English, we use it to describe a particularly impressive display of skill and effort. The phrase came to English in the early 19th century, and it has become increasingly common ever since. Today, we use it not only as a noun phrase but also as a phrasal adjective.

There is no reason to hyphenate tour de force when it’s a noun phrase (e.g., her performance was a tour de force ), but hyphenating it makes sense when it’s a phrasal adjective ( she gave a tour-de-force performance ). But it often goes unhyphenated even as a phrasal adjective.

We tend to italicize words and phrases from other languages when they are new to English, but tour de force is no longer new, so there’s no need to italicize it in normal use. But because tour and force are English words, some publications still italicize it to avoid confusion.

In French, the plural of tour de force is tours de force . In English, both tours de force and tour de forces are used (the former about twice as often as the latter).

Lord Byron thought proper, as a sort of tour de force , to versify, in his Don Juan, passages taken from prose works. [ Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country (1839) ] To pass this examination is a tour de force of which very few men are capable, owing to the general inability of the average mortal to take in abstract conceptions. [ Music: a monthly magazine … (1895) ] At the same time, the trans-Atlantic flight is still a tour de force, as it will possibly be a very long time before we can hope to see an America-to-Ireland service. [ New York Times (1919) ] It was an organizational tour de force. The French overlooked nothing, except the spirit of the Olympics with its emphasis on brotherhood and fellowship. [ Calgary Herald (1968) ] Despite his late dismissal, Ponting allowed himself a touch of satisfaction as he looked back on his tour-de-force innings. [ Daily Mail (2005) ] Nigel Hawthorne, best known as Sir Humphrey Appleby, delivers a tour de force performance as the king. [ The Australian (2012) ]

Grammarist is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. When you buy via the links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you.

2024 © Grammarist, a Found First Marketing company. All rights reserved.

Start each day with the Word of the Day in your inbox!

• By clicking "Sign Up", you are accepting Dictionary.com Terms & Conditions and Privacy policies.
• Name This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Word of the Day

Word of the day, tour de force.

a feat requiring unusual strength, skill, or ingenuity.

More about tour de force

Tour de force “a feat requiring unusual strength, skill, or ingenuity” is a borrowing from French, in which the phrase literally means “turn of strength.” French tour has two separate derivations: the noun tour “a turn” in tour de force is related to the verb tourner “to turn” (from Latin tornāre ), and this tour is not to be confused with tour “tower” (from Latin turris ). This distinction is why the Tour de France refers to a long, winding bicycle race while the tour Eiffel is the original French name for the Eiffel Tower. Other derivatives of Latin tornāre “to turn” include return , tourniquet , tourist , and tornado . Tour de force was first recorded in English circa the year 1800.

how is tour de force used?

“The idea that nature is not bound by the artificial boundaries that we assign to physics, chemistry, biology or mathematics has been around a long time,” said astrophysicist Mayank Vahia …. He said the Nobel prize in physiology and medicine shared by Jim Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, for instance, for unraveling the double helix structure of DNA, might not have been won but for the technical (read physical) tour de force of X-ray diffraction studies achieved by Rosalind Franklin and her colleagues.

A tour de force from 1938, by the German-born Argentine Annemarie Heinrich in league with her sister Ursula, finds the two reflected in a mirrored orb. In the background—from our point of view—Annemarie grins as she snaps the shutter of a standing camera; Ursula looms gigantically and wildly distorted as she leans forward to grasp the sphere. It takes time, enjoyably, to puzzle out the picture’s vertiginous structure.

Listen to the podcast

the arc of the horizon measured clockwise from the south point, in astronomy, or from the north point, in navigation, to the point where a vertical circle through a given heavenly body intersects the horizon.

More about azimuth

Azimuth “the arc of the horizon measured clockwise” derives by way of Middle French azimut from Arabic as-sumūt “the ways,” an assimilated plural form of al-samt “the way.” As we learned from the recent   Word of the Day acequia , the prefix al- “the” assimilates to match the first sound in the word that follows—but only when that sound is pronounced with the tip of the tongue. Azimuth shares an origin with zenith “the point on the celestial sphere vertically above a given position,” but while azimuth closely resembles its Arabic source, zenith arose when Arabic samt was borrowed into Old Spanish as zemt and was subsequently misread as zenit . We never know when a small scribal error can end up creating a new word! Azimuth was first recorded in English in the late 14th century.

how is azimuth used?

While we say that the sun sets in the west, most times that’s not exactly the case …. [B]etween the first day of spring and the first day of autumn, the position on the horizon where the sun appears to set, known as the azimuth , actually occurs somewhat north of due west. The azimuth of the sunset slowly shifts northward until the day of the June solstice; thereafter, it reverses course and shifts back to the south. On June 21, the sun sets at an azimuth of 302 degrees, or 32 degrees north of due west. But for the setting sun to be seen from all of Manhattan’s cross streets, its azimuth must be 299 degrees, or 29 degrees north of due west.

an act or instance of fighting a shadow or an imaginary enemy.

More about sciamachy

Sciamachy “an act of fighting a shadow” is adapted from Ancient Greek skiamachía , equivalent to skiá “shadow” and máchē “battle.” Skiá is sometimes romanized as scia- , consistent with the Latin trend of changing Greek kappa to Roman c , but other derivatives of skiá in English hew closely to the original spelling and appear as skia- , as in skiagraph “a photographic image produced by the action of x-rays or nuclear radiation.” Máchē is a popular element in technical terms related to fighting or warfare. When combined with taûros “bull,” we get tauromachy “bullfighting,” and when combined with lógos “word,” we get logomachy “a dispute about or concerning words.” Sciamachy was first recorded in English circa 1620.

how is sciamachy used?

As farewells were played, Order became disorder And sciamachy took root. In the dark place, where mirrors Refracted black light Breathing became ragged. … And, I, cannot now Recognise a face. There is but a record Of a dark place.

Aru is indulging in sciamachy . She has the frustrated look of a person combating a shadow, a shadow that absorbs her anger and gives her nothing in return. As for me, it was not only her questions that daunted me, it was her look as well, the clear-eyed, judging gaze…

Get A Vocabulary Boost In Your Inbox

• By clicking "I'M IN", you are accepting Dictionary.com Terms & Conditions and Privacy policies.
• Mar 05, 2022 enumerate
• Mar 04, 2022 pindan
• Mar 03, 2022 sylvan
• Mar 02, 2022 bibliophile
• Mar 01, 2022 accelerando
• Feb 28, 2022 metronymic
• Feb 27, 2022 feijoada
• Feb 26, 2022 frowzy
• Feb 25, 2022 coronach

Definition of 'tours de force'

Tours de force in british english.

tour de force in British English

Examples of 'tours de force' in a sentence tours de force.

Related terms of tours de force

• tour de force

Wordle Helper

Scrabble Tools

Quick word challenge

Quiz Review

Score: 0 / 5

Words and phrases

Personal account.

• Access or purchase personal subscriptions
• Get our newsletter
• Save searches
• Set display preferences

Institutional access

Sign in with library card

Sign in with username / password

Recommend to your librarian

Institutional account management

Sign in as administrator on Oxford Academic

tour de force noun

• Hide all quotations

What does the phrase tour de force mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the phrase tour de force . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

How common is the phrase tour de force ?

How is the phrase tour de force pronounced, british english, where does the phrase tour de force come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the phrase tour de force is in the 1800s.

OED's earliest evidence for tour de force is from 1802, in a letter by Lord Elgin.

tour de force is a borrowing from French.

Etymons: French tour .

Nearby entries

• toupee, n. 1727–
• toupeed, adj. 1847–
• toupet, n. 1728–
• toupeted, adj. 1903–
• toupet-titmouse, n. 1785–
• tour, n. c1320–
• tour, v. 1746–
• Tourangeau, n. & adj. 1883–
• Tourangeois, adj. & n. 1857–
• tourbillion | tourbillon, n. 1477–
• tour de force, n. 1802–
• Tour de France, n. 1922–
• tour d'horizon, n. 1952–
• tourelle, n. c1330–
• tourer, n. 1927–
• tourette, n.¹ 1881–
• Tourette, n.² 1899–
• Tourettism, n. 1981–
• tourification, n. 1802–
• tourify, v. 1820–
• tourifying, adj. 1825–

Thank you for visiting Oxford English Dictionary

To continue reading, please sign in below or purchase a subscription. After purchasing, please sign in below to access the content.

Meaning & use

Pronunciation, entry history for tour de force, n..

tour de force, n. was first published in 1913; not yet revised.

tour de force, n. was last modified in July 2023.

Revision of the OED is a long-term project. Entries in oed.com which have not been revised may include:

• corrections and revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations which have been added in subsequent print and online updates.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into tour de force, n. in July 2023.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

OED First Edition (1913)

• Find out more

OED Second Edition (1989)

• View tour de force in OED Second Edition

Please submit your feedback for tour de force, n.

Please include your email address if you are happy to be contacted about your feedback. OUP will not use this email address for any other purpose.

Citation details

Factsheet for tour de force, n., browse entry.

• Dictionaries home
• American English
• Collocations
• German-English
• Grammar home
• Practical English Usage
• Learn & Practise Grammar (Beta)
• Word Lists home
• My Word Lists
• Recent additions
• Resources home
• Text Checker

Definition of tour de force noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

tour de force

Definitions on the go

Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.

• English non-lemma forms
• English noun forms

Navigation menu

tour de force (n.)

"feat of strength, power, or skill," 1802, a French phrase used in English, from tour "turn, act, feat" (see tour (n.)) + force "force, power" (see force (n.)).

Entries linking to tour de force

c. 1300, "physical strength," from Old French force "force, strength; courage, fortitude; violence, power, compulsion" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *fortia (source also of Old Spanish forzo , Spanish fuerza , Italian forza ), noun use of neuter plural of Latin fortis "strong, mighty; firm, steadfast; brave, bold" (see fort ).

Meanings "power to convince the mind" and "power exerted against will or consent" are from mid-14c. Meaning "body of armed men, a military organization" first recorded late 14c. (also in Old French). Physics sense is from 1660s; force field attested by 1920. Related: Forces .

c. 1300, "a turn of events; one's shift on duty," from Old French tor, tour, tourn , tourn "a turn, trick, round, circuit, circumference," from torner, tourner "to turn" (see turn (v.)).

The sense of "a going round (a place, or from place to place), a continued ramble or excursion" is from 1640s. Compare tourism . The literal sense of "a turning round, circular movement" is rare in English and obsolete.

For Grand Tour , see grand (adj.). Tour de France as a bicycle race is attested in English by 1916 ( Tour de France Cycliste , distinguished from a motorcar race of the same name). A tour d'horizon (1952 in English) is a broad, general survey. A little tour or excursion is a tourette (1881).

Trends of tour de force

More to explore, share tour de force.

updated on May 20, 2024

Trending words

• 1 . shampoo
• 2 . algorithm
• 3 . spinster
• 4 . malarkey
• 5 . wednesday
• 7 . vampire
• 9 . algebra
• 10 . toilet

Dictionary entries near tour de force

tour de force

• English (English)
• 简体中文 (Chinese)
• Deutsch (German)
• Español (Spanish)
• Français (French)
• Italiano (Italian)
• 日本語 (Japanese)
• 한국어 (Korean)
• Português (Portuguese)
• 繁體中文 (Chinese)

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Examples of tour de force

Word of the Day

side hustle

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio

a piece of work or a job that you get paid for doing in addition to doing your main job

Fakes and forgeries (Things that are not what they seem to be)

Learn more with +Plus

• Recent and Recommended {{#preferredDictionaries}} {{name}} {{/preferredDictionaries}}
• Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
• Grammar and thesaurus Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English Grammar Thesaurus
• Pronunciation British and American pronunciations with audio English Pronunciation
• English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
• English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
• English–Dutch Dutch–English
• English–French French–English
• English–German German–English
• English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
• English–Italian Italian–English
• English–Japanese Japanese–English
• English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
• English–Polish Polish–English
• English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
• English–Spanish Spanish–English
• English–Swedish Swedish–English
• Dictionary +Plus Word Lists

{{message}}

There was a problem sending your report.

• Daily Crossword
• Word Puzzle
• Word Finder
• Word of the Day
• Synonym of the Day
• Word of the Year
• Language stories
• All featured
• Gender and sexuality
• All pop culture
• Writing hub
• Grammar essentials
• Commonly confused
• All writing tips
• Pop culture
• Writing tips

Advertisement

• tour de force

noun as in spectacular achievement

Weak matches

• accomplishment
• achievement
• chef-d'oeuvre
• feat of strength
• grand achievement
• great achievement
• magnum opus
• master stroke
• masterpiece
• performance
• pièce de résistance
• stroke of genius

Discover More

Example sentences.

In her aching memoir, she embarks on a tour de force examination of her childhood, marked first by her mother’s abandoning her when she was a toddler and later by the death of her beloved father.

Through the late 1960s, Capote claimed to be writing his masterpiece, his tour de force based on his swans, but several deadlines passed for it.

At 35, Hawa Hassan is already a tour de force when it comes to Somali food in America.

Understated yet opulent, measured, and intensely creepy, it’s a tour de force in balancing uncomfortable levels of tension and suspense with deep pathos.

Page’s tour de force performance in Hard Candy led, two years later, to Juno, a low-budget indie film that brought Page Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations and sudden megafame.

His family memoir, Sweet and Low, is a tour de force of reporting and memory—tender, curious, and exceptionally funny.

It is a tour de force of reporting: 13,000 words on a two-week deadline.

It's also a masterpiece of choreographed c--tery—Joffrey's final tour de force.

And, of course, she's best known for her ball-busting tour de force as Ed Helms's wife in The Hangover.

As a result, his version is a technical tour de force but a movie that never gets under your skin.

As a tour de force in the gentle art of lying, the snake-story is justly esteemed.

As a tour de force of geometrical imagination it would be difficult to parallel this hypothesis.

The physical tour de force, was one of those feats of agility in which Neb had been my instructor, ten years before.

If the Mastersingers was a little less successful as a work of art we should still have to regard it as an amazing tour de force.

The music for such incidents cannot be of the highest beauty; here we have one of the cases of a tour de force.

Related Words

Words related to tour de force are not direct synonyms, but are associated with the word tour de force . Browse related words to learn more about word associations.

noun as in something completed successfully; goal reached

• acquirement
• acquisition
• actualization
• consummation
• contrivance
• effectuation
• encompassment
• fulfillment
• realization

noun as in model

noun as in achievement, often by maneuver

• coup d'état
• coup de mâitre
• successful stroke

noun as in achievement

• happenin'

Viewing 5 / 18 related words

On this page you'll find 39 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to tour de force, such as: accomplishment, achievement, attainment, chef-d'oeuvre, conquest, and deed.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.