[vohl-tair, vol-; Fr. vawl-ter] 
(François Marie Arouet ), 1694–1778, French philosopher, historian, satirist, dramatist, and essayist. |
The nom de plume of François Arouet, an eighteenth-century French philosopher and author and a major figure of the Enlightenment. Voltaire was known as a wit and freethinker. The most famous of his works is Candide.