Repartee is the quick, clever exchange of witty remarks between people, like a verbal tennis match where each player tries to hit back something even more clever than what came their way. When two people engage in repartee, they're trading smart, often humorous comments back and forth with impressive speed.

Imagine two friends joking around, and one says, “You're about as helpful as a screen door on a submarine.” The other shoots back, “Well, you're about as sharp as a marble.” That rapid-fire exchange of clever retorts is repartee. The word suggests both quickness and intelligence: good repartee requires you to think fast and speak cleverly.

You might see repartee between characters in a play, where the dialogue crackles with wit, or between comedians who improvise together. The playwright Oscar Wilde was famous for writing dialogue full of brilliant repartee. In real life, siblings often develop their own style of repartee, knowing each other well enough to trade clever comebacks without missing a beat.

What makes repartee special is that the clever remarks come so quickly, showing mental agility and verbal skill, without turning mean-spirited.