grace

Grace is the unhurried ease in the way somebody moves. A dancer crossing the stage without seeming to push off the floor; an old man rising out of a low armchair as though it cost him nothing.

From bodies the word spreads to behaviour: you lose an argument with grace, accept a decision with good grace, and a host has the grace to say nothing about the broken glass. In religion, grace is kindness God gives to people who have not earned it and cannot repay it — the sense that fills hymns and sermons, and the one the word is famous for. Grace is also the short prayer before a meal: you say grace. It buys time, too — a week's grace, a grace period, days of grace on a payment. And it works as a verb: a photograph graces the cover of the magazine, a guest graces you with their presence, which is nearly always said with a raised eyebrow.

Phrases it lives in

• with good grace — accepting something you dislike without complaining
• fall from grace — lose the respect or position you once had
• saving grace — the one good quality that redeems something otherwise poor
• there but for the grace of God — that misfortune could just as easily have been mine