Meanings
- not comparableNecessary according to etiquette, protocol or fashion.
Wearing a suit to a job interview is de rigueur.
5 more examples
This season, the little black dress is de rigueur.
[…] his nose—if a sketch of his features be de rigueur for a person of his pretensions—was artistically beautiful enough to have been worth doing in marble by any sculptor not over-busy, […].
1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC[…] Lady Muriel—not being one of those lady-singers who think it de rigueur to decline to sing till they have been petitioned three or four times, […].
1889, Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], Sylvie and Bruno, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 247It is still de rigueur for the victorious State to add to its exploitable territory at the expense of the conquered.
1959, Frank Chodorov, The Rise and Fall of Society, Devin-Adair, Chapter 13, page 126Not a problem. I lived half my adult life in a country where dropping in unannounced was de rigueur.
1995, Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2, New York, N.Y.: Farrar Straus Giroux, →ISBN
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiverequired by etiquette or usage or fashion
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Frenchde rigueur“required”
- Englishde rigueur
Borrowed from French de rigueur (“required”), from de (“of”) + rigueur (“rigour/rigor”).
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic ملزم اجتماعيًا
- ملزم اجتماعيًاnecessary according to etiquette
French de rigueur
- de rigueurnecessary according to etiquette
Hungarian elvárt, ajánlatos
- elvártnecessary according to etiquette
- ajánlatosnecessary according to etiquette
- ajánlottnecessary according to etiquette
- illendőnecessary according to etiquette
- (szinte/jóformán) kötelezőnecessary according to etiquette
- az elvárásnecessary according to etiquette
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with de rigueur
Cite this entry
de rigueur. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/de%20rigueur
“de rigueur.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/de%20rigueur. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “de rigueur,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/de%20rigueur.
Source: de rigueur on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.