Meaning
An achievement or performance of exceptional skill, ingenuity, or power that stands out as extraordinary - a masterly creation, a brilliant maneuver, a feat few could match. It is strong praise with a formal, review-page register, applied to novels, films, negotiations, and engineering alike, and generally reserved for genuinely striking accomplishments. Laudatory and somewhat lofty; it reads as reviewer's language, and overuse drains it of force. Regional use: General English (borrowed from French).
Origin
French, literally 'feat of strength': tour 'turn, feat', de 'of', force 'strength, power'. The Phrase Finder, drawing on the Online Etymology Dictionary and A.Word.A.Day, dates the first English appearance to 1802, when it already meant a feat of strength, power, or skill; Random House (via dictionary.com) gives 1795-1805. Grammarist, cited on the same page, notes that the phrase grew steadily more common through the nineteenth century and was never anglicized in spelling or pronunciation, which is why it retains a formal, borrowed feel. Modern use covers both artistic masterpieces and adroit maneuvers in difficult situations.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- tour de forces
- tours de force
Usage Examples
- Her one-woman show was a tour de force, forty characters and not a false note among them.
- The final chapter is a quiet tour de force, resolving every plot thread in ten pages.
- Steering the bill through both houses before recess was widely called a legislative tour de force.