blond
Americanadjective
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(of hair, skin, etc.) light-colored.
the child's soft blond curls.
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(of a person) having light-colored hair and skin.
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(of furniture wood) light in tone.
noun
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a blond person.
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silk lace, originally unbleached but now often dyed any of various colors, especially white or black.
adjective
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(of men's hair) of a light colour; fair
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(of a person, people or a race) having fair hair, a light complexion, and, typically, blue or grey eyes
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(of soft furnishings, wood, etc) light in colour
noun
Spelling
See blonde.
Usage
What’s the difference between blond and blonde? Blond and blonde are both adjectives most commonly used to describe the color of light or yellowish hair or someone who has such hair. They can also both be used as nouns referring to a person with such hair, as in Should I make this character a blond or a redhead? They are pronounced exactly the same. But there is a difference: the spelling blonde is typically used in a gender-specific way to refer to or describe women and girls with this hair color. In contrast, the use of blond in a gender-neutral way is very common. And when the word is used as an adjective, this spelling is much more commonly used, regardless of the gender of the person whose hair color is being described. Blond and blonde derive from French, which has grammatical gender, meaning that some words end differently depending on whether they are applied to men or women (with e being the feminine ending). This happens in a few other pairs of words in English, like confidant and confidante, though in many cases the term without the e has become largely gender-neutral. This is the case with blond, which is the more commonly used of the two. When describing the colors of things other than hair, such as wood or coffee, only the spelling blond is used. When in doubt, remember that the spelling blond is appropriate in all cases. Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between blond and blonde.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of blond
First recorded in 1475–85; from Middle French blonde “blond, light brown,” feminine of blond, from Germanic; akin to Old English blondenfeax “gray-haired,” Latin flāvus “yellow” ( see flavo-)
Explanation
Blond isn't just a word used to describe pale yellow hair, it can also be used to describe a person with such hair. We'll leave it to you to decide whether or not blonds have more fun. There's all kinds of blonds out there from bleached to platinum to strawberry to sandy. Some people, Brits especially, will add an e to the end of blonde depending on what gender they are talking about, so that a woman is blonde while a man is blond. The addition of the "e" in the feminine form of blonde is of course a holdover from its French origin. Not only fair-haired people are described as blond; you might have seen blond wood used in Scandinavian furniture. Ikea, anyone?
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:
As criticism erupted over the tagline, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” for drawing a pun in reference to the actress’s blond hair and blue eyes, the president boosted the brand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
Goforth is about 5-foot-7 and 140 pounds with blond hair and blue eyes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
During our Zoom, with the background carefully faded behind her wavy blond bob, she promises that she doesn’t just copy and paste her subjects and settings from what sells.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
So when he heard on social media that Germans were congregating in Times Square, Altmeks readily pulled on a jersey of his hero Rudi Voller -- plus a wig mimicking the famed striker's blond curls.
From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 2026
The blond kid was smaller than the other two.
From "Caterpillar Summer" by Gillian McDunn
Los Angeles was Chandler’s terrain, as much of a muse as any of the leggy blonds that populated his fiction.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2024
“Hot in here,” Kidman’s Gretchen Carlson remarks in a meta-nod to the trailer’s palpable tension as the trio of blonds share an elevator.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2019
In the 1953 How to Marry a Millionaire, Bacall was the third-billed brunet between two sexy blonds, Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable.
From Time ● Aug. 15, 2014
The surge of delayed gratification that will wash over you upon being reunited with Veronica Mars, the surliest of blonds, and her snap-crackling fictional universe, will make it worthwhile.
From Slate ● Mar. 12, 2014
He saw tall boys and short boys, brown-haired boys and black-haired boys, honey blonds and strawberry blonds and redheads kissed by fire, like Ygritte.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Or a bodybuilder who has now shrunk herself into a more petite figure, complete with blonder hair.
From Salon ● May 5, 2025
“The grayer my hair got over the years, the blonder my hair got,” she says.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 8, 2020
I thought of Chris as the blonder one, but this is mostly a Thor-based illusion.
From Slate ● Feb. 15, 2019
Some Neanderthal variations were associated with blonder, paler complexions, and others were with darker pigmentation.
From The Verge ● Oct. 9, 2017
Although out here in the bright sun, which was reaching higher into the sky, the other students’ hair looked even blonder.
From "Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story" by Nora Raleigh Baskin
"When we talked, the first thing Amber said to me is: 'I am really blonde, I'm the blondest person you've ever seen, I'm impossible to miss'," said Cat, who was diagnosed with cancer aged 20.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2021
A goth in black biker boots and the "blondest person you've ever seen" who loves the colour pink may seem like an unlikely pairing on paper.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2021
Winning was the priority, whether running fastest, jumping highest or having the blondest hair, leading the young Al to set his sights on becoming "world king".
From The Guardian ● Jul. 21, 2019
To The Post, she characterized Johnson as ubercompetitive — suggesting that, going back to his childhood, he “competed at everything, including who was the blondest, who was the fastest, who was the cleverest.”
From Washington Post ● Jul. 20, 2019
Charlotte had the blondest hair I’ve ever seen.
From "Wonder" by R. J. Palacio
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.
