# éminence grise

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/minence-grise
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

A secret or unofficial decision-maker.

## Examples

- The old advisor is the éminence grise behind the company's success.
- The mayor's brother is the éminence grise who controls the city budget.
- Everyone thinks the CEO runs the firm, but his assistant is the real éminence grise.
- The retired professor acts as an éminence grise, secretly guiding the department's hiring decisions from his home.
- While the young director gets all the credit, her father remains the éminence grise who chooses every project the studio funds.
- Though she held no official title, the veteran diplomat had become an éminence grise whose quiet counsel shaped foreign policy for three decades.

## Origin

Borrowed from French éminence grise (literally “grey eminence”), originally applied to François Leclerc du Tremblay (1577–1638), also known as Père Joseph, a French Capuchin friar who was the confidant and agent of Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642), the chief minister of France under Louis XIII (1601–1643). The term refers to du Tremblay’s influence over the Cardinal (who bore the honorific of Eminence), and the colour of his habit (grey, rather than the red of a cardinal).

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.