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serviette

UK/ˌsɜː.viˈɛt/
nounB1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans spoken

A serviette is the cloth or paper used to wipe your mouth. Fold the serviette, a paper serviette, hand out serviettes.

It is one of the great British class markers: serviette or napkin has been used for a century to place a speaker, with napkin the word the upper classes kept. Both are perfectly clear and neither is wrong.

Neeta Lind · CC BY 2.0

Definitions of serviette

  1. 1nounservietteThe cloth or paper used to wipe your mouth.B1

    “He wiped his mouth with a paper serviette and pushed his plate away.”

serviette is a cloth.

Also accepted in games: napkin

Where it comes from

Middle French serviette comes from servir, to serve.

  1. Middle French

    serviette

  2. Middle English

    serviotis

  3. English, today

    serviette

From Middle English serviotis, from Middle French serviette.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Restaurant & Cafe, Manners & Etiquette

Practise this word

serviette in the wild

  • A napkin, serviette or face towelette is a square of cloth or paper tissue used at the table for wiping of the mouth and fingers while eating.

    Napkin

  • There is also an item which holds a napkin or serviette in a button hole or the top of a conventional necktie knot.

    Napkin holder

  • A napkin or serviette is a rectangle of cloth or paper used for wiping the mouth or fingers while eating.

    Napkin (disambiguation)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.