fiancée

or fi·an·cee

[ fee-ahn-sey, fee-ahn-sey ]

noun

1. a woman engaged to be married.

fiancée

/ fɪˈɒnseɪ /

noun

1. a woman who is engaged to be married

Gender Note

When French words describe or name people, they are inflected to match the gender of the person. To mark a noun or adjective as feminine, French adds an unaccented letter e at the end of a word. If the person engaged to be married is a man, he’s a fiancé . The bride-to-be is a fiancée . This distinction is usually preserved in English language use of these words: fiancé for a man, fiancée for a woman. However, it is also common for borrowed words to lose some foreign characteristics. This is why, for example, words like cliché , fiancée , or résumé may be written in English without accent marks. Such an omission in French would be an error, resulting in the wrong pronunciation of these words, but in English, it is acceptable to lose this foreign feature. Similarly, some English speakers will completely drop the gender agreement in the fiancé — fiancée distinction, using fiancé for both men and women. The prescriptive rules of English grammar do not encourage the reduction to a single form, though it is a natural phenomenon for words borrowed into English to neutralize gender markings. The adjective née presents a slightly different case. The feminine inflection of this French word is the commonly borrowed form, since women are usually the ones to distinguish their maiden names from their married ones. However, the masculine form né would be the appropriate one for a man in reference to his original last name, in the increasingly common event of the groom’s name changing with his marriage. The spelling with the extra e is the marked feminine form and should be used to name or describe a woman: née , divorcée , fiancée . If you choose to spell these French words with their accents, be sure to place them correctly. For words ending in ée, the accented é is the first of the two.

Word History and Origins

Origin of fiancée¹

First recorded in 1850–55; from French; feminine of fiancé

Example Sentences

His fiancée, Natasha Folley, says she and the children are happy that Payne is back.

From The Daily Beast

Randy Starks was forced to miss a single exhibition game despite striking his fiancée.

From The Daily Beast

Ultimately, both Rice and his fiancée would be charged with assault.

From The Daily Beast

NFL running back Ray Rice was caught on video dragging his unconscious fiancée out of an elevator.

From The Daily Beast

I live in a quiet, old blue-collar area of Dublin with my fiancée.

From The Daily Beast

Farther down the gravel-walk strolls a young Frenchman and his fiancée—the mother of his betrothed inevitably at her side!

From Project Gutenberg

If Roger's American wife was by now wildly jealous of his old fiancée, whose fault was it?

From Project Gutenberg

I fairly barked, and seizing the megaphone again, I set it to my lips and roared, "My fiancée!"

From Project Gutenberg

He had gone reluctantly, because he saw that his fiancée was worried.

From Project Gutenberg

She reached the spot just as he was driving out with his fiancée.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• affianced
• affianced person
• betrothed
• bride-to-be
• engaged person
• future mate
• future wife
• intended
• prospective spouse
• wife-to-be