eminence grise

1. 1.

   (French) a person who exercises power or influence in certain areas without holding an official position

   “the President's wife is an eminence grise in matters of education”

   Broaderimportant person

   French

Questions about eminence grise

What does eminence grise mean?

eminence grise means "(French) a person who exercises power or influence in certain areas without holding an official position".

Is eminence grise a common word?

eminence grise is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.