repartee
Other forms: repartees
Late night talk show hosts are known for being experts at repartee, or clever conversation, with their celebrity guests.
Repartee comes from the French word repartire, which is a fencing term meaning "an answering thrust with a sword." When you are engaging in repartee, you don't literally stab someone, but you come back with a quick verbal blow. Most of us aren't as quick as we'd like to be. Mark Twain defined repartee as, "something we think of 24 hours too late."
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adroitness and cleverness in reply
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Vocabulary lists containing repartee
Jane is a strong-willed young woman who finds employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she meets the mysterious Edward Rochester and learns his darkest secret.
Included in the often-revised collection Leaves of Grass, "Song of Myself" expresses the 19th-century American poet's visions of common and universal humanity. The full text can be found here.
When Bijan Majidi sinks the winning basket at a varsity basketball game, he unexpectedly finds himself enjoying the perks of popularity. But his success also sparks rivalry — and makes Bijan the target of an anonymous cyberbully.