Foreign words and your essay

If you use an unfamiliar foreign word or phrase in a document, you should set it in italics and provide a definition in parentheses after its first mention.

   In Paris, we went to a wonderfulfête champêtre (outdoor festival).
  

Foreign proper nouns and familiar foreign words may be set in roman type.

   I made a terrible faux pas on the Champs Élysées.
  

As a general rule, you can assume that a foreign word that appears in an English language dictionary is familiar enough to most readers that it does not need to be italicized or defined.

The list below includes 50 foreign words and phrases that are in common use in written English.

   

   à la carte: for a separate price
   a priori: based on theory instead of experience
   ad hoc: for a specific purpose
   ad nauseam: to a nauseating degree
   belles-lettres: literature
   bête noire: something to be avoided
   bon mot: a clever remark
   carte blanche: complete authority
   cause célèbre: a controversial issue or event
   coup de grâce: a decisive event
   coup d'état: an overthrow of a government by force
   crème de la crème: the best or greatest
   cum laude: with honors
   de facto: actual
   de jure: according to law
   de rigueur: required by custom
   déjà vu: the sense that a present event also occurred in the past
   en masse: all together
   enfant terrible: a person whose unconventional behavior causes embarrassment
   esprit de corps: a sense of shared enthusiasm for a cause
   ex post facto: retroactive
   fait accompli: a thing that cannot be changed
   faux pas: a social mistake
   in medias res: in the middle of things
   in toto: totally
   ipso facto: by that fact
   je ne sais quoi: a special quality that cannot be described
   joie de vivre: an enjoyment of life
   lingua franca: a common language
   magnum opus: an artist’s greatest work
   mea culpa: admission of guilt for an error
   mise en scène: a setting
   modus operandi: a method of operating
   non sequitur: a statement that does not follow logically from what came before
   objet d’art: an object of artistic quality
   par excellence: quintessential
   persona non grata: a person who is not welcome
   pièce de résistance: an outstanding item or accomplishment
   postmortem: an analysis of an event after it has ended
   pro forma: for the sake of formality
   quid pro quo: a substitution
   raison d’être: a reason for being
   savoir faire: displaying polished social behavior
   status quo: the existing state of affairs
   sui generis: one of a kind
   tabula rasa: something in a pristine state
   terra firma: solid ground
   tête-à-tête: an intimate conversation between two people
   tour de force: a feat accomplished with great skill or strength
   vis-à-vis: compared with

Why you should always use foreign words

One main reason is how it spices your write up. Combination of different foreign words in a composite manner gives a good taste to your readers. But care should still be taken as compounding it with foreign words can also kill your readers interest as well.