Word: lissome (adjective)

Associations

"Lissome" means flexible, graceful, and slender, often used to describe a person's body or movements.

• She moved with a lissome grace across the stage. (Shows smooth and elegant movement.)
• The dancer's lissome figure impressed the audience. (Describes a slender and flexible body.)
• The cat jumped with lissome agility onto the windowsill. (Means quick and graceful movement.)

A well-known synonym is "supple." The difference is that "lissome" often emphasizes elegance and beauty in movement, while "supple" focuses more on flexibility without stiffness, not always implying beauty.

Substitution

You can replace "lissome" with:

• graceful (focuses on beauty and smoothness of movement)
• slender (emphasizes thinness of body)
• agile (focuses on quick and skillful movement) Using "graceful" highlights elegance more, while "agile" stresses speed and skill.

Deconstruction

"Lissome" comes from Old English "liðe," meaning "flexible" or "mild," combined with the suffix "-some," which means "characterized by." So "lissome" literally means "characterized by flexibility."

Inquiry

• Can you think of a person or animal you have seen move in a lissome way?
• How is "lissome" different from just saying "flexible"?
• Can "lissome" be used to describe things other than people or animals? Why or why not?