coquette

American  

[koh-ket] / koʊˈkɛt /

noun

• coquettes
  plural

1. a woman who flirts lightheartedly with men to win their admiration and affection; flirt.

   Synonyms:

   vamp, tease

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verb (used without object)

1. to coquet.

coquette British  

/ kɒˈkɛt, kəʊˈkɛt /

noun

1. a woman who flirts

2. any hummingbird of the genus Lophornis, esp the crested Brazilian species L. magnifica

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Gender

What's the difference between coquette and coquet? See -ette.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• coquettishness
  noun
• coquettish
  adjective
• coquettishly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• coquettes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of coquette

First recorded in 1605–15; from French, feminine of coquet

Explanation

A coquette is a flirt, a girl or woman who knows how to flatter and manipulate men with her charms in order to get what she wants. Coquette sounds French, and it is, borrowed into English from French in the mid-17th century. It's the feminine diminutive form of coq, which means "cock, a male bird" — so coquette refers to a little female bird, and, in fact, it's also the name of a kind of colorful hummingbird found in Latin America. If you imagine a coquette as a flamboyant little bird flitting about and teasing the male birds, you'll have a good picture of a coquette.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

coquette coquettes

Paired with a signature lace trim, Mendoza’s one-of-a-kind pieces are coquette staples that balance cultural pride and individuality.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026

The powerful, complex female lead was a rarity in traditional music theatre, where operatic tropes were easily assimilated, such as the virginal naif, the coquette, the old shrew.

From Salon ● Dec. 4, 2021

This early Parisienne was an accessible figure, a scrappy coquette who loved as hard as she worked.

From The New Yorker ● Sep. 19, 2019

The thumb-size short-crested coquette is found only in the forest edge along a roughly 15-mile stretch of road in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountain in southern Mexico.

From National Geographic ● Apr. 18, 2018

She was half witch, half coquette, and her superficial cynicism was but a new form of her coquetry.

From Tiny Luttrell by Ernest William Hornung

If these coquettes shared a single trait, it was by no means beauty but an indomitable will to succeed and the ability to overcome natural handicaps.

From Time Magazine Archive

When the Walshes went off to Europe to meet King Albert of the Belgians, she licked Baedekers to make her lips red and practiced walking like Parisian coquettes.

From Time Magazine Archive

Unlike Chaplin, who was ever the champion of the innocent heroine, Laurel and Hardy usually ran afoul of gold-digging coquettes or nagging wives.

From Time Magazine Archive

Hill seems to have been desirous of abusing certain friends whom he had praised in the Inspectors; so volatile, like the loves of coquettes, are the literary friendships of the “Scribleri.”

From Calamities and Quarrels of Authors by Isaac Disraeli

Just fancy me presenting that little blushing, shrinking Galway girl as my wife to my lady mother, or to that princess of coquettes, Lizzie Erliston!

From Sharing Her Crime by May Agnes Fleming