abbé
noun
(especially in France)
abbé
American
[a-bey, ab-ey, a -bey]
/ æˈbeɪ, ˈæb eɪ, aˈbeɪ /
noun
-
abbés
plural
abbé
1
British
/ abe, ˈæbeɪ /
noun
-
a French abbot
-
a title used in addressing any other French cleric, such as a priest
Abbe
2
British
/ ˈaːbə, ˈæbɪ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of abbé
First recorded in 1520–30; from French, Middle French, from Late Latin abbāte(m), accusative of abbās abbot
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Morse got most of this story from a book written by a Scottish academic named John Robison, who in turn took many of his ideas from the abbé de Barruel, a French priest.
From Slate ● Oct. 24, 2022
He even took minor orders in the Roman Catholic Church in 1865, becoming an abbé but appropriately stopping short of the vow of chastity.
From New York Times ● Oct. 22, 2011
This smoothness has perhaps a slight tinge of the priestly—for, as Renan first studied for the priesthood, so Dupont-Sommer was once an abbé.
From The New Yorker ● May 6, 1955
Forval, a courtly, good-looking man in a silk-trimmed dolman, with gold lace on his hat and an embroidered sword-knot, and an abbé with smiling face, wearing a lilac robe and purple girdle.
From The Golden Age in Transylvania by Mór Jókai
The abbé spoke some words to Voltaire, exhorting him to patience.
From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 7 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Discussions by Robert Green Ingersoll
Hudson Abbe and Sean Downs each hit home runs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said Lemon was in Los Angeles to cover the upcoming Grammy Awards when he was apprehended in a hotel lobby late Thursday night.
From Salon ● Jan. 30, 2026
Another dimension of Abbe, scholars say, is encoded in a light-brown leather account book.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
“Ease” survived, but Abbe soon sold the work to railroad baron Collis Potter Huntington to help relieve his financial difficulties.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
The clerical youth introduced himself as the Abbe Bouret, a hanger-on of the Bouillon household.
From Superwomen by Albert Payson Terhune
The marquises and abbés he met in France had dreamed over elementary principles of society and government, until they had lost themselves in wandering mazes like Milton's speculative and erring angels.
From The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 2, February, 1864 Devoted To Literature And National Policy by Various
The clergy nominated bishops and abbés attached to privilege, and curés favourable to the popular cause, which was their own; lastly, the third estate selected men enlightened, firm, and unanimous in their wishes.
From History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814 by M. (François-Auguste-Marie-Alexis) Mignet
Yes, we can say it among ourselves," Des Hermies returned, "in the nineteenth century the number of foul-minded abbés has been legion.
From Là-bas by Keene Wallace
We cannot conclude this article better than by honorably mentioning two classes of men whom we have seen in all their glory, and whom the Revolution has eclipsed--the chevaliers and the abbés.
From Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 6 by Hamilton Wright Mabie
They were imitated in their vices by a rabble of priests out of place, to whom the title of abbot was given in politeness, the little abbés of French biography and fiction.
From The Eve of the French Revolution by Edward J. (Edward Jackson) Lowell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
