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Pièce de résistance

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(pronounced pee-es duh ruh-zee-stahns or pee-es duh ray-zee-stah^Ns. In the second alternative, the ^N does not represent a consonant and the ah is nasalized. The plural, pièces de résistance, has the same pronunciation as the singular.)  noun

Definition

1. the principal dish of a meal. 2. the most admirable or remarkable item, feature, or event in a series or assemblage; a principal or outstanding example of its kind in an exhibition.

Main Example

• Have you had a chance to visit the Lascaux exhibit currently touring North America? It is packed with displays that enlighten visitors on every key aspect of the world’s most famous prehistoric art. One item that by itself is worth the ticket price is a mock cave containing exact replicas of five select sections of the walls and paintings in Lascaux. As you look at the high fidelity reproductions of the 20,000-year-old art, illuminated in flickering light from yellow lamps, you get to relive the experience of Marcel Ravidat, the 18-year-old Frenchman who stumbled upon the cave in 1940 when, by some accounts, his dog chased a rabbit through an opening that led to the caves. Unquestionably, the mock cave is the exhibit’s pièce de résistance.

Workplace Examples

• I am disappointed that in this new documentary about America’s space program, there are only a few minutes devoted to the Apollo missions. I firmly believe that of the many notable achievements by NASA since its establishment in 1958, the moon landings are the pièce de résistance.
• Oh, I have to disagree when you say the tyrannosaur is the showpiece in Dallas’s Perot Museum. In my view, there are several “pièces de résistance,” if you will. Sure, the T-Rex is one, but so is the alamosaurus, which the docent described as being “two school buses high and two school buses long.” And what about that pterosaur--the one that hangs from the ceiling and has a wingspan of over 30 feet!

Other Examples

• this author telling a potential client: “A couple of years ago, when I delivered ten seminars on different topics for a division of the oil services giant Subsea 7, the general manager of that unit described the seminar on ‘How to deliver highly effective praise in just three sentences’ as the ‘hidden jewel,’ the pièce de résistance, of my entire repertoire. Obviously, he realizes that good and effective praise is an invaluable tool to help boost employee morale and productivity.
• a friend commenting: “Dinner last night was out of this world. It was a seven course meal…everything was great, but one thing that really stood out was the exquisite truffled polenta on a bed of pureed English peas topped with asparagus foam. You could call it the pièce de résistance!”
• the song “My heart will go on,” sung by Celine Dion, being the pièce de résistance in the movie “Titanic,” according to this author
• the painting “Dance Class” being regarded by some art connoisseurs as Impressionist master Edgar Degas’s pièce de résistance

© 2014 V.J. Singal
No part of this may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author.

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