Molière

American

[mohl-yair, maw-lyer] / moʊlˈyɛər, mɔˈlyɛr /

noun

Jean Baptiste Poquelin, 1622–73, French actor and playwright.

Molière British

/ mɔljɛr /

noun

real name Jean-Baptiste Poquelin. 1622–73, French dramatist, regarded as the greatest French writer of comedy. His works include Tartuffe (1664), Le Misanthrope (1666), L'Avare (1668), Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670), and Le Malade imaginaire (1673)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Molière Cultural

Nom de plume of Jean Baptiste Poquelin, a seventeenth-century French playwright. He is best known for his comedies of satire, such as The Misanthrope and Tartuffe.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"The English have Shakespeare; the French, Moliere. In Argentina, they have Borges, but the Western is ours. I like that."

From Barron's

“The English have Shakespeare, the French Moliere, and the Russians Chekhov. The western is ours.”

From Los Angeles Times

"The English have Shakespeare; the French, Moliere; the Russians have Chekhov. But the Western is ours."

From BBC

“The English have Shakespeare; the French, Molière. In Argentina, they have Borges, but the western is ours.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Lucas Hnath’s new version of Molière’s classic comedy “Tartuffe” is how surprising it isn’t.

From The Wall Street Journal

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023