(pronounced tet-eh-TET or tayt-eh-TAYT)

What a multifunctional word: it can be a noun, it can be an adverb, it can be an adjective. It can even mean a piece of furniture, but you will need to go under Design Speak to see that definition. The crazy word comes from the French. (Shocking, we know.) As a noun, it means a private conversation between two people. As an adverb, it means in private. And as an adjective, it means confidential or face-to-face.

Example (noun): Sandy had suspected that the bid process was tainted, but the moment she interrupted a tête-à-tête between the developer and the contractor’s VP of Marketing, she was sure of it.

Example (adjective): “Let’s have a tête-à-tête lunch meeting,” Mitch said. “I don’t want the design firm to know that we are looking for representation elsewhere, or we will have to go back to square one when we have barely just started,”