Mot Juste
The exact right word for the situation — a writer's ideal.
Mot juste is a French phrase meaning 'the exact right word'. It captures the writer's pursuit of the single most precise term, the one that makes any substitute feel approximate. Gustave Flaubert is the most famous champion of the idea, said to have spent days hunting a single noun.
In quotation work, le mot juste is a useful test. When a line is widely paraphrased into looser wording, the original almost always uses a more precise verb or noun. Restoring the mot juste restores the quote.
For writers, the discipline is to leave a phrase unfinished rather than settle for the approximate. For quoters, the discipline is to honour the original by quoting verbatim.
“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter — 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.”
Keep reading the glossary
A short, sharp statement that compresses a truth or observation into a single line.
Restating someone's words in your own — credit still required, quotation marks not.
Reproducing a quote with the wording changed — even if the source is correct.
A short rule for conduct, usually stated as a general principle.