métier
Americannoun
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a field of work; occupation, trade, or profession.
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a field of work or other activity in which one has special ability or training; forte.
noun
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a profession or trade, esp that to which one is well suited
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a person's strong point or speciality
Etymology
Origin of métier
1785–95; < French; Old French mestier < Gallo-Romance *misterium, for Latin ministerium ministry
Explanation
If toasting bread is the limit of your culinary skills, then being a chef is probably not your métier. A métier, in other words, is a job to which you are particularly well suited by your skills. Your métier can also be a particularly outstanding talent or strong point in general. If you're a chef, your divine steak frites might be your métier. If you're a mechanic, your ability to understand transmissions may be your métier. Often used interchangeably with forte, meaning "strong point." As the accent over the "e" in métier implies, it's originally from the French, because the French, darn them, are good at so many things. Particularly steak frites.
Vocabulary lists containing metier
Can I Work It? Words for "Job"
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English Words Derived from French, List 11
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Murder on the Orient Express
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Already you anticipate that some of these interviews aren’t going to go Leonard’s way as Schrader’s métier, the language of self-excoriating doubt, finds voice.
From Los Angeles Times • May 19, 2024
It “lacks focus and stability,” he wrote, “its métier is bearing witness, demonstrating solidarity.”
From Washington Post • Feb. 1, 2023
His métier is family: the way we are shaped by it and the way we push back on or move beyond it; how it both supports and limits us.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 22, 2022
He worked for a time in a role he labeled “so-called managing editor,” but he did not discover a lifelong métier in the work.
From New York Times • Sep. 21, 2022
Writing is not my métier: I prefer a silverpoint or a chalk drawing or the infinite pleasure of oil colors.
From Voices from the Past by Bartlett, Paul Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
