1. Something in which a person excels. 2. The strong part of a sword blade, between the middle and the hilt.
ETYMOLOGY:
French fort, from Old French, strong, from Latin fortis. See fort.
SYNONYMS:
forte1, métier, specialty, thing These nouns denote something at which a person is particularly skilled: Writing fiction is her forte. The theater is his métier. The professor's specialty was the study of ancient languages. Mountain climbing is really my thing.
USAGE NOTE:
The word forte, coming from French fort, should properly be pronounced with one syllable, like the English word fort. Common usage, however, prefers the two-syllable pronunciation, (fôrt), which has been influenced possibly by the music term forte borrowed from Italian. In a recent survey a strong majority of the Usage Panel, 74 percent, preferred the two-syllable pronunciation. The result is a delicate situation; speakers who are aware of the origin of the word may wish to continue to pronounce it as one syllable but at an increasing risk of puzzling their listeners.
fôr
t
, 
rt
