Definition of style

"style" in the noun sense

1. manner, mode, style, way, fashion

how something is done or how it happens

"her dignified manner"

"his rapid manner of talking"

"their nomadic mode of existence"

"in the characteristic New York style"

"a lonely way of life"

"in an abrasive fashion"

2. expressive style, style

a way of expressing something (in language or art or music etc.) that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period

"all the reporters were expected to adopt the style of the newspaper"

3. style

a particular kind (as to appearance

"this style of shoe is in demand"

4. vogue, trend, style

the popular taste at a given time

"leather is the latest vogue"

"he followed current trends"

"the 1920s had a style of their own"

5. style

botany) the narrow elongated part of the pistil between the ovary and the stigma

6. style

editorial directions to be followed in spelling and punctuation and capitalization and typographical display

7. dash, elan, flair, panache, style

distinctive and stylish elegance

"he wooed her with the confident dash of a cavalry officer"

8. stylus, style

a pointed tool for writing or drawing or engraving

"he drew the design on the stencil with a steel stylus"

9. style

a slender bristlelike or tubular process

"a cartilaginous style"

"style" in the verb sense

1. style, title

designate by an identifying term

"They styled their nation `The Confederate States'"

2. style

make consistent with a certain fashion or style

"Style my hair"

"style the dress"

3. style

make consistent with certain rules of style

"style a manuscript"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

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Quotations for style

Not poetry, but prose run mad. [ Pope ]

Proper words in proper places. [ Swift ]

Style is the dress of thoughts. [ Chesterfield ]

A temperate style is alone classical. [ Joubert ]

Style is the physiognomy of the mind. [ Arthur Schopenhauer ]

A good style fits like a good costume. [ Alcott ]

He abounds in charming faults of style. [ Quint ]

Set off with numerous breaks and dashes. [ Swift ]

An ill style is better than a lewd story. [ Proverb ]

The style of St. Jerome shines like ebony. [ Joubert ]

Expression is the dress of thought, and
Appears more decent as more suitable;
A vile conceit in pompous words expressed,
Is like a clown in regal purple dressed. [ Pope ]

Read well-written books aloud to children. [ Ada Ellen Bayly, a.k.a. Edna Lyall, English novelist and early feminist, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

How the wit brightens! how the style refines! [ Pope ]

Lightning and thunder (heaven's artillery)
As harbingers before th' Almighty fly:
Those but proclaim His style, and disappear;
The stiller sounds succeed, and God is there. [ John Dryden ]

Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love. [ Milton ]

The lives of trees lie only in the barks,
And in their styles the wit of greatest clerks. [ Butler ]

The mind, relaxing into needful sport,
Should turn to writers of an abler sort.
Whose wit well managed, and whose classic style,
Give truth a lustre and make wisdom smile. [ Cowper ]

His eloquence is classic in its style,
Not brilliant with explosive coruscations
Of heterogeneous thoughts, at random caught.
And scattered like a shower of shooting stars,
That end in darkness: no; - his noble mind
Is clear, and full, and stately, and serene.
His earnest and undazzled eye he keeps
Fixed on the sun of Truth, and breathes his words
As easily as eagles cleave the air,
And never pauses till the height is won;
And all who listen follow where he leads. [ Mrs. Hale ]

And glory long has made the sages smile;
It is something, nothing, words, illusion, wind -
Depending more upon the historian's style
Than on the name a person leaves behind. [ Byron ]

Style is what gives value and currency to thought. [ Amiel ]

More elegant manners expelled this offensive style. [ Horace ]

Never to use a long word when a short word will do. [ Ada Ellen Bayly, a.k.a. Edna Lyall, English novelist and early feminist, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

Style may be defined, proper words in proper places. [ Swift ]

The truly sublime is always easy, and always natural. [ Burke ]

An author can have nothing truly his own but his style. [ Disraeli ]

It is difficult to descend with grace without seeming to fall. [ Blair ]

A good writer does not write as people write, but as he writes. [ Montesquieu ]

Proper words in proper places make the true definition of a style. [ Jonathan Swift ]

Montesquieu had the style of a genius; Buffon, the genius of style. [ Baron Grimm ]

The true character of epistolary style is playfulness and urbanity. [ Joubert ]

Men who make money rarely saunter; men who save money rarely swagger. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]

Simplicity, without which no human performance can arrive at perfection. [ Swift ]

You gain your point if your industrious art can make unusual words easy. [ Roscommon ]

Every good writer has much idiom; it is the life and spirit of language. [ Landor ]

Every age has its pleasures, its style of wit, and its peculiar manners. [ Boileau ]

The best style of writing, as well as the most forcible, is the plainest. [ Horace Greeley ]

Style is the gossamer on which the needs of truth float through the world. [ Bancroft ]

Chaucer, I confess, is a rough diamond, and must be polished ere he shine. [ Dryden ]

The great secret of a good style is to have proper words in proper places. [ Edwin P. Whipple ]

Style, after all, rather than thought, is the immortal thing in literature. [ Alexander Smith ]

Altogether the style of a writer is a faithful representative of his ideas. [ Goethe ]

Long sentences in a short composition are like large rooms in a little house. [ Shenstone ]

A pure style in writing results from the rejection of everything superfluous. [ Mme. Necker ]

The great source of a loose style is the injudicious use of synonymous terms. [ Blair ]

The young writer should remember that bigness is not greatness, nor fury force. [ George William Curtis ]

Every man must have his own style, as he has his own face and his own features. [ John Stuart Blackie, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

Every style formed elaborately on any model must be affected and straight-laced. [ Whipple ]

A chaste and lucid style is indicative of the same personal traits in the author. [ Hosea Ballou ]

Have something to say, and then say it as simply and straightforwardly as you can. [ Ada Ellen Bayly, a.k.a. Edna Lyall, English novelist and early feminist, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

Small-pot-soon-hot style of eloquence is what our county conventions often exhibit. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]

Uncommon expressions are a disfigurement rather than an embellishment of discourse. [ Hume ]

In the present day our literary masonry is well done, but our architecture is poor. [ Joubert ]

Will no superior genius snatch the quill, and save me on the brink from writing ill? [ Young ]

In all you write be neither low nor vile: The meanest theme may have a proper style. [ Dryden ]

Nero was wont to say of his master, Seneca, that his style was like mortar without lime. [ Bacon ]

Let us not write at a loose rambling rate, in hope the world will wink at all our faults. [ Roscommon ]

The first requisite of style, not only in rhetoric, but in all compositions, is perspicuity. [ Whately ]

Such labored nothings, in so strange a style, amaze the unlearned and make the learned smile. [ Pope ]

Style seems to depend on three things:
1. a mental attitude and character,
2. a familiarity with the best authors,
3. dexterity in the use of words, acquired by constant practice.
So we must learn to speak by speaking, as we learn to walk by walking, or to dance by dancing. [ John Stuart Blackie, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

There is nothing in words and styles but suitableness that makes them acceptable and effective. [ Glanvill ]

To write well is to think well; there is no art of style distinct from the culture of the mind. [ Ernest Renan, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

Simplicity in character, in manners, in style: in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity. [ Longfellow ]

Unconsciousness is one of the most important conditions of a good style in speaking or in writing. [ R. S. White ]

Xenophon wrote with a swan's quill, Plato with a pen of gold, and Thucylides with a brazen stylus. [ Joubert ]

Style supposes the reunion and the exercise of all the intellectual faculties. The style is the man. [ Buffon ]

The style of letters should not be too highly polished. It ought to be neat and correct, but no more. [ Blair ]

One who uses many periods is a philosopher; many interrogations, a student; many exclamations, a fanatic. [ J. L. Basford ]

Oh, never will I trust to speeches penned! * * * taffeta phrases, silken terms precise, three-piled hyperboles. [ William Shakespeare ]

My own style is the result of downright hard work. This, and the experience of life, have been my chief teachers. [ Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

Style is only the frame to hold your thoughts. It is like the sash of a window; if heavy, it will obscure the light. [ Emerson ]

I have tried merely to express what I had to say with as much simplicity and as little affectation as I could command. [ James A. Froude, The Art of Authorship, 1891 ]

Cure oneself as far as possible of a trick common to almost every one, of using four or five adjectives before a noun. [ Ada Ellen Bayly, a.k.a. Edna Lyall, English novelist and early feminist, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

Never write except when you have something to say, and then say it simply - as Addison, Goldsmith, and Franklin wrote. [ Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

The requirements of health, and the style of female attire which custom enjoins are in direct antagonism to each other. [ Abba Goold Woolson ]

I have always tried to write Saxon rather than Latin, in short words rather than long, and specially in short sentences. [ Edward Everett Hale, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

If a book come from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts; all art and authorcraft are of small amount to that. [ Carlyle ]

Any style is good if you have something you have a call to say, and men ought to hear; and no style is good if you haven't. [ Thomas Hughes, The Art of Authorship, 1891 ]

If you would be pungent, be brief, for it is with words as with sunbeams the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn. [ Saxe ]

The least degree of ambiguity which leaves the mind in suspense as to the meaning ought to be avoided with the greatest care. [ Blair ]

When we meet with a natural style, we are surprised and delighted, for we expected to find an author, and we have found a man. [ Pascal ]

Antithesis may be the blossom of wit, but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk, and truth the root. [ Colton ]

Submit your sentiments with diffidence. A dictatorial style, though it may carry conviction, is always accompanied with disgust. [ George Washington ]

The old prose writers wrote as if they were speaking to an audience; while, among us, prose is invariably written for the eye alone. [ Niebuhr ]

A look of intelligence in men is what regularity of features is in women; it is a style of beauty to which the most vain may aspire. [ La Bruyere ]

Obscurity in writing is commonly an argument of darkness in the mind. The greatest learning is to be seen in the greatest plainness. [ Wilkins ]

The lively phraseology of Montesquieu was the result of long meditation. His words, as light as wings, bear on them grave reflections. [ Joubert ]

The good writer never chooses a word at hazard, or without noting its harmony in sound as well as sense with what precedes and follows. [ Sir Edwin Arnold, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

A great writer possesses, so to speak, an individual and unchangeable style, which does not permit him easily to preserve the anonymous. [ Voltaire ]

In describing things, I always try to see the whole scene before beginning to write it, and specially to realise the colour of everything. [ Ada Ellen Bayly, a.k.a. Edna Lyall, English novelist and early feminist, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

Propriety of thought and propriety of diction are commonly found together. Obscurity and affectation are the two greatest faults of style. [ Macaulay ]

Wherever you find a sentence musically worded, of true rhythm and melody in the words, there is something deep and good in the meaning also. [ Coleridge ]

The scholars of Ireland seem not to have the least conception of style, but run on in a flat phraseology, often mingled with barbarous terms. [ Swift ]

Style in painting is the same as in writing, - a power over materials, whether words or colors, by which conceptions or sentiments are conveyed. [ Sir Joshua Reynolds ]

One tires of a page of which every sentence sparkles with points, of a sentimentalist who is always pumping the tears from his eyes or your own. [ Thackeray ]

Some have a violent and turgid manner of talking and thinking: they are always in extremes, and pronounce concerning everything in the superlative. [ Dr. Watts ]

The way to elegancy of style is to employ your pen upon every errand; and the more trivial and dry it is, the more brains must be allowed for sauce. [ F. Osborn ]

I hate a style, as I do a garden, that is wholly flat and regular, - that slides along like an eel and never rises to what one can call an inequality. [ Shenstone ]

With many readers brilliancy of style passes for affluence of thought; they mistake buttercups in the grass for immeasurable mines of gold under ground. [ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]

In taste and imagination, in the graces of style, in the arts of persuasion, in the magnificence of public works, the ancients were at least our equals. [ Macaulay ]

A sentence well couched takes both the sense and the understanding. I love not those cart-rope speeches that are longer than the memory of man can fathom. [ Feltham ]

Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison. [ Johnson ]

Justness of thought and style, refinement in manners, good-breeding and politeness of every kind, can come only from the trial and experience of what is best. [ Duncan ]

There was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently, however they have writ the style of gods, and make a pish at chance and sufferance. [ William Shakespeare ]

The two weak points of our age are want of principle and want of profile. Style depends largely on the way the chin is worn. They are worn very high at present. [ Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest ]

You know that in everything women write there are always a thousand faults of grammar, but, with your permission, a harmony which is rare in the writings of men. [ Mme. de Maintenon ]

Make yourself thoroughly acquainted with your subject before writing, write without special attention to composition, and prune afterwards what you have written. [ Sir Austen Henry Layard, The Art of Authorship, 1891 ]

He who would reproach an author for obscurity should look into his own mind and see whether it is quite clear there. In the dusk the plainest writing is illegible. [ Goethe ]

Mannerism is always longing to have done, and has no true enjoyment in work. A genuine, really great talent, on the other hand, has its greatest happiness in execution. [ Goethe ]

Whatever professes to benefit by pleasing must please at once. The pleasures of the mind imply something sudden and unexpected; that which elevates must always surprise. [ Dr. Johnson ]

A beginner should study the raciest, strongest, best spoken speech, and let the printed speech alone. Write straight from the thought, without bothering about the manner. [ William D. Howells, The Art of Authorship, 1891 ]

Persons are oftentimes misled in regard to their choice of dress by attending to the beauty of colors, rather than selecting such colors as may increase their own beauty. [ Shenstone ]

Style is indeed the valet of genius, and an able one too; but as the true gentleman will appear, even in rags, so true genius will shine, even through the coarsest style. [ Colton ]

Read the best authors attentively - Bacon, Locke, Hume, Berkeley, Jeremy Taylor, and of moderns, Walter Scott, Bulwer, Thackeray, Ruskin, Froude; and practice constantly. [ George Rawlinson, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

The way to acquire lasting esteem is not by the fewness of a writer's faults, but the greatness of his beauties, and our noblest works are generally most replete with both. [ Goldsmith ]

Those who make antitheses by forcing the sense are like men who make false windows for the sake of symmetry. Their rule is not to speak justly, but to make accurate figures. [ Pascal ]

I look upon paradoxes as the impotent efforts of men who, not having capacity to draw attention and celebrity from good sense, fly to eccentricities to make themselves noted. [ Horace Walpole ]

A good deal depends upon luck as well as care, and sometimes a writer must wait, or even leave off and return to work again, before he can hit upon the turn of words required. [ Richard D. Blackmore, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated; far more difficult to sacrifice skill and cease exertion in the proper place, than to expend both indiscriminately. [ Ruskin ]

Redundancy of language is never found with deep reflection. Verbiage may indicate observation, but not thinking. He who thinks much says but little in proportion to his thoughts. [ Washington Irving ]

As it is a great point of art, when our matter requires it, to enlarge and veer out all sail, so to take it in and contract it is of no less praise when the argument doth ask it. [ Ben Jonson ]

When you doubt between words, use the plainest, the commonest, the most idiomatic. Eschew fine words as you would rouge, love simple ones as you would native roses on your cheek. [ J. C. Hare ]

Miss Edgeworth and Mme. de Stael have proved that there is no sex in style; and Mme. la Roche Jacqueline, and the Duchesse d'Angouleme have proved that there is no sex in courage. [ Colton ]

Plutarch would rather we should applaud his judgment than commend his knowledge, and would rather leave us with an appetite to read more than glutted with that we have already read. [ Montaigne ]

The beautiful invariably possesses a visible and a hidden beauty; and it is certain that no style is so beautful as that which presents to the attentive reader a half-hidden meaning. [ Joubert ]

I have strictly adhered to the rule of never copying. I write at once as I intend the words to stand. This leads to great precision of thought, and makes the style fresh and vigorous. [ Louisa Molesworth, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

Have something to tell, and tell it clearly, simply, without a trace of affectation or conscious effort at fine writing. I should advise the study of examples in this perfection of art. [ E P. Roe, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

Sir Francis Bacon observed that a well-written book, compared with its rivals and antagonists, is like Moses' serpent, that immediately swallowed up and devoured those of the Egyptians. [ Addison ]

Whenever I am in doubt about a sentence I read it aloud to see how it sounds, and indeed, always read the whole book through aloud, sometimes more than once, before it goes to the press. [ Ada Ellen Bayly, a.k.a. Edna Lyall, English novelist and early feminist, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

My own firm conviction is that no education can make a writer. The heart must be hot behind the pen. Out of the abundance of life and its manifold experiences comes the power to touch life. [ Amelia E. Barr, The Art of Authorship, 1891 ]

As the air and manner of a gentleman can be acquired only by living habitually in the best society, so grace in composition must be attained by an habitual acquaintance with classical writers. [ Dugald Stewart ]

The main thing in writing is to have distinct, and clear, and well-marshalled ideas, and then to express them simply and without affectation. This forms what we may call the bones of a good style. [ John Stuart Blackie, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

A copious manner of expression gives strength and weight to our ideas, which frequently make impression upon the mind, as iron does upon solid bodies, rather by repeated strokes than a single blow. [ Melmoth ]

D'Alembert tells us that Voltaire had always lying on his table the Petit Careme of Massillon and the Tragedies of Racine; the former to fix his taste in prose composition, and the latter in poetry. [ Dugald Stewart ]

There is a certain majesty in plainness; as the proclamation of a prince never frisks in its tropes or fine conceits, in numerous and well-turned periods, but commands in sober, natural expressions. [ South ]

The censure of frequent and long parentheses has led writers into the preposterous expedient of leaving out the marks by which they are indicated. It is no cure to a lame man to take away his crutches. [ Whately ]

Nothing is so difficult as the apparent ease of a clear and flowing style; those graces which, from their presumed facility, encourage all to attempt an imitation of them, are usually the most inimitable. [ Colton ]

The secret of force in writing lies not so much in the pedigree of nouns and adjectives and verbs, as in having something that you believe in to say, and making the parts of speech vividly conscious of it. [ Lowell ]

The words in prose ought to express the intended meaning; if they attract attention to themselves, it is a fault; in the very best styles, as Southey's, you read page after page without noticing the medium. [ Coleridge ]

The style of an author is a faithful copy of his mind. If you would write a lucid style, let there first be light in your own mind; and if you would write a grand style, you ought to have a grand character. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

Let the man who despises style, and says that he attends to the matter, recollect that if the lace is sold at a higher price than the noble metal, it owes its chief value to its elegance, and not to its material. [ Yriarte ]

The want of a more copious diction, to borrow a figure from Locke, is caused by our supposing that the mind is like Fortunatus's purse, and will always supply our wants, with out our ever putting anything into it. [ Bovee ]

The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime makes the ridiculous; and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again. [ Thomas Paine ]

Generally speaking, an author's style is a faithful copy of his mind. If you would write a lucid style, let there first be light in your own mind; and if you would write a grand style, you ought to have a grand character. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

Whatever is pure is also simple. It does not keep the eye on itself. The observer forgets the window in the landscape it displays. A fine style gives the view of fancy - its figures, its trees, or its palaces, - without a spot. [ Willmott ]

When I meet with any persons who write obscurely or converse confusedly, I am apt to suspect two things; first, that such persons do not understand themselves; and secondly, that they are not worthy of being understood by others. [ Colton ]

Burke's sentences are pointed at the end, instinct with pungent sense to the last syllable. They are like a charioteer's whip, which not only has a long and effective lash, but cracks and inflicts a still smarter sensation at the end. [ John Foster ]

In composing, think much more of your matter than your manner. To be sure, spirit, grace, and dignity of manner are of great importance, both to the speaker and writer; but of infinitely more importance is the weight and worth of matter. [ Wirt ]

Fine declamation does not consist in flowery periods, delicate allusions of musical cadences, but in a plain, open, loose style, where the periods are long and obvious, where the same thought is often exhibited in several points of view. [ Goldsmith ]

I had fifteen years' apprenticeship on the press of New York, writing editorials upon every conceivable subject, often at a few minutes notice, acquiring in this way rapid thought and rapid expression. ... The proof of genius lies in continuity. [ Amelia E. Barr, The Art of Authorship, 1891 ]

Only well-written works will descend to posterity. Fulness of knowledge, interesting facts, even useful inventions, are no pledge of immortality, for they may be employed by more skilful hands; they are outside the man; the style is the man himself. [ Buffon ]

As the mind of Johnson was robust, but neither nimble nor graceful, so his style was void of all grace and ease, and, being the most unlike of all styles to the natural effusion of a cultivated mind, had the least pretension to the praise of eloquence. [ Sir J. Mackintosh ]

If there is excellence in my composition, set it down, first of all things and last, to the general fact that I have no method. Modes of expression in writing, like modes of expression in speech, are referable purely to feeling, not studied, but of the moment. [ Gen. Lew Wallace, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

Beauty in dress, as in other things, is largely relative. To admit this is to admit that a dress which is beautiful upon one woman may be hideous worn by another. Each should understand her own style, accept it, and let the fashion of her dress be built upon it. [ Miss Oakey ]

An era is fast approaching when no writer will be rend by the majority, save and except those than can effect that for bales of manuscript that the hydrostatic screw performs for bales of cotton, by condensing that matter into a period that before occupied a page. [ Cottar ]

Style is the dress of thoughts; and let them be ever so just, if your style is homely, coarse, and vulgar, they will appear to as much disadvantage, and be as ill received, as your person, though ever so well proportioned, would if dressed in rags, dirt, and tatters. [ Chesterfield ]

To write a genuine familiar or truly English style is to write as anyone would speak in common conversation, who had a thorough command and choice of words, or who could discourse with ease, force, and perspicuity, setting aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes. [ Hazlitt ]

The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment. The lighter beauties are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say: but the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, or a didactic work. [ Voltaire ]

We know much of a writer by his style. An open and imperious disposition is shown in short sentences, direct and energetic. A secretive and proud mind is cold and obscure in style. An affectionate and imaginative nature pours out luxuriantly, and blossoms all over with ornament. [ Beecher ]

Style is the physiognomy of the mind. It is more infallible than that of the body. To imitate the style of another is said to be wearing a mask. However beautiful it may be, it is through its lifelessness insipid and intolerable, so that even the most ugly living face is more engaging. [ Schopenhauer ]

Perhaps that is nearly the perfection of good writing which is original, but whose truth alone prevents the reader from suspecting that it is so; and which effects that for knowledge which the lens effects for the sunbeam, when it condenses its brightness in order to increase its force. [ Colton ]

The education which has, however, made me a writer has been a living one. I have not only read much, I have seen much, and enjoyed much, and, above all, I have sorrowed much. God has put into my hands every cup of life, sweet and bitter, and the bitter has often become sweet, and the sweet bitter. [ Amelia E. Barr, The Art of Authorship, 1891 ]

Style! style, why, all writers will tell you that it is the very thing which can least of all be changed. A man's style is nearly as much a part of him as his physiognomy, his figure, the throbbing of his pulse, - in short, as any part of his being which is at least subjected to the action of the will. [ Fenelon ]

The style of writing required in the great world is distinguished by a free and daring grace, a careless security, a fine and sharp polish, a delicate and perfect taste; while that fitted for the people is characterized by a vigorous natural fulness, a profound depth of feeling, and an engaging naivete. [ Goethe ]

The style of writing required in the great world is distinguished by a free and daring grace, a careless security, a fine and sharp polish, a delicate and perfect taste; while that fitted for the people is characterised by a vigorous natural fulness, a profound depth of feeling, and an engaging naïveté. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

It is curious for one who studies the action and reaction of national literature on each other, to see the humor of Swift and Sterne and Fielding, after filtering through Richter, reappear in Carlyle with a tinge of Germanism that makes it novel, alien, or even displeasing, as the case may be, to the English mind. [ Lowell ]

A prolific source of obscurity is ambiguous arrangement. A member of the Savage Club, so runs the story, was one day standing on the steps of the club house. A messenger stopped and inquired: Does a gentleman belong to your club with one eye named Walker? I don't know, was the answer, what was the name of his other eye? [ Sir J. F. Stephen, The Art of Authorship, 1891 ]

In some exquisite critical hints on Eurythmy. Goethe remarks, that the best composition in pictures is that which, observing the most delicate laws of harmony, so arranges the objects that they by their position tell their own story. And the rule thus applied to composition in painting applies no less to composition in literature. [ Edward Bulwer-Lytton ]

Harmony of period and melody of style have greater weight than is generally imagined in the judgment we pass upon writing and writers. As a proof of this, let us reflect what texts of scripture, what lines in poetry, or what periods we most remember and quote, either in verse or prose, and we shall find them to be only musical ones. [ Shenstone ]

Propriety of thought and propriety of diction are commonly found together. Obscurity and affectation are the two great faults of style. Obscurity of expression generally springs from confusion of ideas; and the same wish to dazzle, at any cost, which produces affectation in the manner of a writer, is likely to produce sophistry in his reasoning. [ Macaulay ]

Any one may mouth out a passage with a theatrical cadence, or get upon stilts to tell his thoughts; but to write or speak with propriety and simplicity is a more difficult task. Thus it is easy to affect a pompous style, to use a word twice as big as the thing you want to express; it is not so easy to pitch upon the very word that exactly fits it. [ Hazlitt ]

The unaffected of every country nearly resemble each other, and a page of our Confucius and your Tillotson have scarce any material difference. Paltry affectation, strained allusions, and disgusting finery are easily attained by those who choose to wear them; they are but too frequently the badges of ignorance or of stupidity, whenever it would endeavor to please. [ Goldsmith ]

A clear running brook is the best teacher of style. There is a quick forward movement - but not measured or monotonous movement - while the water is so limpid that everything is seen through the crystal medium. It seems to me that the best style is that which reveals the writer's thoughts so easily, plainly, and musically that the reader becomes engrossed in the thought or story and forgets the writer. [ E P. Roe, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

You must study to give colour by apt images, and warmth by natural passion and earnestness. The music of words and the cadence of sentences is a matter which depends on the ear. Above all things monotony in the form of the sentences is to be avoided; variety means wealth and always pleases. Condensation also ought to be particularly studied, and a loose, rambling, ill-compacted form of sentence avoided. [ John Stuart Blackie, The Art Of Authorship, 1891 ]

A composition which dazzles at first sight by gaudy epithets, or brilliant turns of expression, or glittering trains of imagery, may fade gradually from the mind, leaving no enduring impression. Words which flow fresh and warm from a full heart, and which are instinct with the life and breath of human feeling, pass into household memories, and partake of the immortality of the affections from which they spring. [ Whipple ]

I cannot look around me without being struck with the analogy observable in the works of God. I find the Bible written in the style of His other books of Creation and Providence. The pen seems in the same hand. I see it, indeed, write at times my steriously in each of these books: thus I know that mystery in the works of God is only another name for my ignorance. The moment, therefore, that I become humble, all becomes right. [ Richard Cecil ]

He who thinks much says but little in proportion to his thoughts. He selects that language which will convey his ideas in the most explicit and direct manner. He tries to compress as much thought as possible into a few words. On the contrary, the man who talks everlastingly and promiscuously; who seems to have an exhaustless magazine of sound, crowds so many words into his thoughts that he always obscures, and very frequently conceals them. [ Washington Irving ]

Young people are dazzled by the brilliancy of antithesis, and employ it. Matter-of-fact men, and those who like precision, naturally fall into comparisons and metaphor. Sprightly natures, full of fire, and whom a boundless imagination carries beyond all rules, and even what is reasonable, cannot rest satisfied even with hyperbole. As for the sublime, it is only great geniuses and those of the very highest order that are able to rise to its height. [ Bruyere ]

If I were to choose the people with whom I would spend my hours of conversation, they should be certainly such as labored no further than to make themselves readily and clearly apprehended, and would have patience and curiosity to understand me. To have good sense and ability to express it are the most essential and necessary qualities in companions. When thoughts rise in us fit to utter among familiar friends, there needs but very little care in clothing them. [ Steele ]

The receipt to make a speaker, and an applauded one too, is short and easy. Take commonsense quantum sufficit (in sufficient quantity); add a little application to the rules and orders of the House of Commons, throw obvious thoughts in a new light, and make up the whole with a large quantity of purity, correctness and elegancy of style. Take it for granted that by far the greatest part of mankind neither analyze nor search to the bottom; they are incapable of penetrating deeper than the surface. [ Chesterfield ]

I put myself, my experiences, my observations, my heart and soul into my work. I press my soul upon the white paper. The writer who does this may have any style, he or she will find the hearts of their readers. Writing a book involves, not a waste, but a great expenditure of vital force. Yet I can assure you I have written the last lines of most of my stories with tears. The characters of my own creation had become dear to me. I could not bear to bid them good-bye and send them away from me into the wide world. [ Amelia E. Barr, The Art of Authorship, 1891 ]

Some authors write nonsense in a clear style, and others sense in an obscure one; some can reason without being able to persuade, others can persuade without being able to reason; some dive so deep that they descend into darkness, and others soar so high that they give us no light; and some, in a vain attempt to be cutting and dry, give us only that which is cut and dried. We should labor, therefore, to treat with ease of things that are difficult; with familiarity, of things that are novel; and with perspicuity, of things that are profound. [ Colton ]

Gentleness in the gait is what simplicity is in the dress. Violent gesture or quick movement inspires involuntary disrespect. One looks for a moment at a cascade; but one sits for hours, lost in thought, and gazing upon the still water of a lake. A deliberate gale, gentle manners, and a gracious tone of voice - all of which may be acquired - give a mediocre man an immense advantage over those vastly superior to him. To be bodily tranquil, to speak little, and to digest without effort are absolutely necessary to grandeur of mind or of presence, or to proper development of genius. [ Balzac ]

My method has been simply this - to think well on the subject which I had to deal with and when thoroughly impressed with it and acquainted with it in all its details, to write away without stopping to choose a word, leaving a blank where I was at a loss for it; to express myself as simply as possible in vernacular English, and afterwards to go through what I had written, striking out all redundancies, and substituting, when possible, simpler and more English words for those I might have written. I found that by following this method I could generally reduce very considerably in length what I had put on paper without sacrificing anything of importance or rendering myself less intelligible. [ Sir Austen Henry Layard, The Art of Authorship, 1891 ]

style in Scrabble®

The word style is playable in Scrabble®, no blanks required.

Scrabble® Letter Score: 8

Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays In The Letters style:

STYLE
(27)
STYLE
(27)
STYLE
(27)
STYLE
(27)
 

All Scrabble® Plays For The Word style

STYLE
(27)
STYLE
(27)
STYLE
(27)
STYLE
(27)
STYLE
(24)
STYLE
(24)
STYLE
(24)
STYLE
(20)
STYLE
(20)
STYLE
(18)
STYLE
(18)
STYLE
(18)
STYLE
(18)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(13)
STYLE
(13)
STYLE
(12)
STYLE
(12)
STYLE
(10)
STYLE
(10)
STYLE
(10)
STYLE
(10)
STYLE
(9)
STYLE
(9)
STYLE
(8)

The 200 Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays For Words Using The Letters In style

STYLE
(27)
STYLE
(27)
STYLE
(27)
STYLE
(27)
STYLE
(24)
STYLE
(24)
STYLE
(24)
STYE
(24)
STYE
(24)
STYE
(21)
STYE
(21)
STYE
(21)
STYE
(21)
STYLE
(20)
STYLE
(20)
STYLE
(18)
STYLE
(18)
STYLE
(18)
STYLE
(18)
YET
(18)
STY
(18)
SLY
(18)
LYE
(18)
YET
(18)
LYE
(18)
YET
(18)
STY
(18)
YES
(18)
LYE
(18)
SLY
(18)
YES
(18)
SLY
(18)
YES
(18)
STY
(18)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYE
(16)
STYE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYE
(15)
LETS
(15)
LEST
(15)
LEST
(15)
YE
(15)
YE
(15)
LETS
(15)
YET
(14)
STYE
(14)
STYE
(14)
STYE
(14)
YES
(14)
STYE
(14)
SLY
(14)
LYE
(14)
STY
(14)
STYLE
(13)
YE
(13)
STYLE
(13)
LYE
(12)
STYLE
(12)
YET
(12)
LYE
(12)
YET
(12)
LYE
(12)
YET
(12)
YES
(12)
YES
(12)
SLY
(12)
SLY
(12)
YES
(12)
STY
(12)
STYE
(12)
STY
(12)
LETS
(12)
STYLE
(12)
STY
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SLY
(12)
LEST
(12)
LEST
(12)
LETS
(12)
LETS
(12)
LEST
(12)
LETS
(12)
LEST
(12)
STYE
(11)
STY
(11)
SLY
(11)
YET
(11)
YES
(11)
STYLE
(10)
STYLE
(10)
LEST
(10)
SLY
(10)
STYLE
(10)
STYLE
(10)
STY
(10)
LEST
(10)
YE
(10)
LETS
(10)
YES
(10)
LYE
(10)
YET
(10)
LETS
(10)
YE
(10)
ELS
(9)
STYE
(9)
LET
(9)
ELS
(9)
ELS
(9)
LET
(9)
YE
(9)
STYE
(9)
SET
(9)
LET
(9)
STYE
(9)
STYLE
(9)
SET
(9)
STYLE
(9)
SET
(9)
STYE
(9)
LEST
(8)
LYE
(8)
STYE
(8)
LETS
(8)
STYE
(8)
STYE
(8)
LEST
(8)
LETS
(8)
YET
(8)
LYE
(8)
LEST
(8)
STYLE
(8)
YES
(8)
YES
(8)
STY
(8)
YET
(8)
LYE
(8)
STY
(8)
SLY
(8)
LETS
(8)
LETS
(8)
SLY
(8)
LEST
(8)
YET
(7)
SLY
(7)
LYE
(7)
YES
(7)
SLY
(7)
STYE
(7)
YET
(7)
YE
(7)
YES
(7)
STY
(7)
LYE
(7)
STY
(7)
EL
(6)
LEST
(6)
LEST
(6)
YES
(6)
ELS
(6)
ELS
(6)
YET
(6)
EL
(6)
LEST
(6)
YE
(6)
ELS
(6)
LEST
(6)
LET
(6)
LETS
(6)
LET
(6)
SLY
(6)
SET
(6)
LEST
(6)
STY
(6)
SET
(6)
LETS
(6)
SET
(6)
LETS
(6)
LETS
(6)
LETS
(6)
LYE
(6)
LETS
(6)
LEST
(6)
LET
(6)
LETS
(5)
LEST
(5)
SET
(5)
SET
(5)
SET
(5)
SET
(5)
LETS
(5)
ELS
(5)
ELS
(5)
LETS
(5)
LEST
(5)
LETS
(5)
LET
(5)

style in Words With Friends™

The word style is playable in Words With Friends™, no blanks required.

Words With Friends™ Letter Score: 8

Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Play In The Letters style:

STYLE
(36)
 

All Words With Friends™ Plays For The Word style

STYLE
(36)
STYLE
(32)
STYLE
(30)
STYLE
(30)
STYLE
(30)
STYLE
(24)
STYLE
(24)
STYLE
(24)
STYLE
(20)
STYLE
(20)
STYLE
(20)
STYLE
(18)
STYLE
(18)
STYLE
(18)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(14)
STYLE
(14)
STYLE
(12)
STYLE
(12)
STYLE
(12)
STYLE
(12)
STYLE
(11)
STYLE
(11)
STYLE
(11)
STYLE
(11)
STYLE
(11)
STYLE
(10)
STYLE
(10)
STYLE
(10)
STYLE
(10)
STYLE
(9)
STYLE
(9)
STYLE
(9)
STYLE
(8)

The 200 Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Plays Using The Letters In style

STYLE
(36)
STYLE
(32)
STYLE
(30)
STYLE
(30)
STYLE
(30)
LETS
(27)
LEST
(27)
STYE
(24)
STYLE
(24)
STYLE
(24)
STYE
(24)
STYLE
(24)
LETS
(21)
LEST
(21)
STYLE
(20)
STYLE
(20)
STYLE
(20)
STYE
(18)
STYE
(18)
STYE
(18)
SLY
(18)
LYE
(18)
STYLE
(18)
LYE
(18)
STYLE
(18)
LYE
(18)
STYE
(18)
STYLE
(18)
SLY
(18)
SLY
(18)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
STYLE
(16)
LETS
(15)
LETS
(15)
STY
(15)
STY
(15)
LEST
(15)
LETS
(15)
LETS
(15)
STY
(15)
YET
(15)
YES
(15)
YET
(15)
YES
(15)
LEST
(15)
LEST
(15)
LEST
(15)
YET
(15)
YES
(15)
STYE
(14)
STYLE
(14)
SLY
(14)
STYLE
(14)
LETS
(14)
STYE
(14)
LEST
(14)
STYE
(14)
STY
(13)
YET
(13)
YES
(13)
LYE
(12)
LYE
(12)
LYE
(12)
LYE
(12)
LYE
(12)
STYE
(12)
SLY
(12)
YE
(12)
SLY
(12)
YE
(12)
STYLE
(12)
SLY
(12)
STYLE
(12)
STYE
(12)
STYE
(12)
STYE
(12)
STYLE
(12)
STYE
(12)
STYLE
(12)
LETS
(12)
SLY
(12)
LEST
(12)
LET
(12)
LET
(12)
ELS
(12)
LET
(12)
ELS
(12)
ELS
(12)
LETS
(11)
YES
(11)
LEST
(11)
STYLE
(11)
STYLE
(11)
STYLE
(11)
STY
(11)
STYLE
(11)
YET
(11)
STYLE
(11)
LYE
(10)
LETS
(10)
LEST
(10)
LETS
(10)
YES
(10)
YET
(10)
STYE
(10)
STY
(10)
LET
(10)
STY
(10)
LETS
(10)
LETS
(10)
STYLE
(10)
STY
(10)
STYLE
(10)
STYE
(10)
YET
(10)
LEST
(10)
SLY
(10)
SLY
(10)
STYLE
(10)
YE
(10)
YES
(10)
LEST
(10)
YES
(10)
YET
(10)
STYLE
(10)
LEST
(10)
EL
(9)
STYLE
(9)
YES
(9)
LEST
(9)
STYLE
(9)
SET
(9)
STY
(9)
STYLE
(9)
LYE
(9)
EL
(9)
SLY
(9)
SET
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YET
(9)
LYE
(9)
LEST
(9)
LETS
(9)
LETS
(9)
SET
(9)
STYE
(9)
STYE
(8)
STYE
(8)
STYLE
(8)
LET
(8)
STYE
(8)
LEST
(8)
LETS
(8)
LEST
(8)
STYE
(8)
LET
(8)
LETS
(8)
LET
(8)
YES
(8)
YE
(8)
YE
(8)
YET
(8)
ELS
(8)
SLY
(8)
LYE
(8)
ELS
(8)
ELS
(8)
SLY
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STY
(8)
ELS
(8)
ELS
(8)
LYE
(8)
STYE
(8)
LET
(8)
LEST
(7)
LEST
(7)
YET
(7)
YE
(7)
LEST
(7)
YES
(7)
YES
(7)
STYE
(7)
LEST
(7)
STYE
(7)
SLY
(7)
SET
(7)
STY
(7)
STY
(7)
EL
(7)
LETS
(7)
LETS
(7)
LET
(7)
LETS
(7)
LYE
(7)
LEST
(7)
YET
(7)

Words containing the sequence style

Word Growth involving style

Shorter words in style

sty

Longer words containing style

acanthostyle acanthostyles

antistyle antistyles

araeostyle araeostyles

araeosystyle

areostyle areostyles

areosystyle

axostyle

blastostyle blastostyles

brushstyle brushstyles

cephalostyle

counterstyle counterstyles

countrystyle

cyclostyle cyclostyled

cyclostyle cyclostyles

cyrtostyle

decastyle decastyles dodecastyles

decastyle dodecastyle dodecastyles

diastyle

distyle distyles

endostyle endostyles

enstyle enstyled

enstyle enstyles

epistyle epistyles

eustyle eustyles

flexostyle flexostyles

freestyle freestyled

freestyle freestyler freestylers

freestyle freestyles

gonostyle gonostyles

hairstyle hairstyler hairstylers

hairstyle hairstyles

heptastyle heptastyles

heterostyle heterostyled

heterostyle heterostyles

hexastyle hexastyles

homostyle homostyled

homostyle homostyles

hypostyle hypostyles

instyle

lifestyle lifestyler lifestylers

lifestyle lifestyles

macrostyle

mesostyle mesostyles

metastyle metastyles

microstyle microstyles

misstyle misstyled

misstyle misstyles

monostyle

neostyle neostyled

neostyle neostyles

nonstyle nonstyles

octastyle octastyles

octostyle octostyles

oldstyle oldstyles

orthostyle orthostyles

parastyle parastyles

pentastyle pentastyles

peristyle peristyles

polystyle polystyles

prostyle amphiprostyle amphiprostyles

prostyle prostyles amphiprostyles

prostyle pseudoprostyle

prostyle tetraprostyle

pycnostyle pycnostyles

pygostyle pygostyled

pygostyle pygostyles

restyle restyled

restyle restyles

sarcostyle sarcostyles

stylebook stylebooks

styled cyclostyled

styled enstyled

styled freestyled

styled heterostyled

styled homostyled

styled longstyled

styled midstyled

styled misstyled

styled neostyled

styled pygostyled

styled restyled

styled selfstyled

styled shortstyled

styled styledom

styled unstyled

styleless stylelessness

stylelike

stylemark stylemarks

styler freestyler freestylers

styler hairstyler hairstylers

styler lifestyler lifestylers

styler stylers freestylers

styler stylers hairstylers

styler stylers lifestylers

styles acanthostyles

styles antistyles

styles araeostyles

styles areostyles

styles blastostyles

styles brushstyles

styles counterstyles

styles cyclostyles

styles decastyles dodecastyles

styles distyles

styles endostyles

styles enstyles

styles epistyles

styles eustyles

styles flexostyles

styles freestyles

styles gonostyles

styles hairstyles

styles heptastyles

styles heterostyles

styles hexastyles

styles homostyles

styles hypostyles

styles lifestyles

styles mesostyles

styles metastyles

styles microstyles

styles misstyles

styles neostyles

styles nonstyles

styles octastyles

styles octostyles

styles oldstyles

styles orthostyles

styles parastyles

styles pentastyles

styles peristyles

styles polystyles

styles prostyles amphiprostyles

styles pycnostyles

styles pygostyles

styles restyles

styles sarcostyles

styles sestyles

styles stylesheet stylesheets

styles substyles

styles tetrastyles

styles tylostyles

styles typestyles

styles urostyles

stylet stylets

stylewort styleworts

substyle substyles

tetrastyle tetrastyles

tylostyle tylostyles

typestyle typestyles

urostyle urostyles

zygostyle