demimondaine

American  

[dem-ee-mon-deyn, duh-mee-mawn-den] / ˌdɛm i mɒnˈdeɪn, də mi mɔ̃ˈdɛn /

noun

• demimondaines
  plural

1. a woman of the demimonde.

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adjective

1. of or relating to the demimonde.

demimondaine British  

/ ˌdɛmɪˈmɒndeɪn, dəmimɔ̃dɛn /

noun

1. a woman of the demimonde

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• demimondaines
  plural

Etymology

Origin of demimondaine

1890–95; < French, equivalent to demimonde demimonde + -aine feminine adj. suffix < Latin -āna -an

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

demimondaine demimondaines

A demimondaine with a shocking reputation, by the time of her death, in 1954, Colette was an institution, the first French woman of letters ever honored with a state funeral.

From New York Times ● Feb. 6, 2023

Oren, more interested in small gestures than gleaming sound, begins the first scene with bumptious brasses and a breakneck tempo that make the room spin, spelling disaster for Verdi’s hard-partying demimondaine.

From New York Times ● Jun. 30, 2022

At whatever age, Kim Stanley proves a gifted actress, but she seems about as Gallic as cornflakes and as demimondaine as Betsy Ross.

From Time Magazine Archive

A few months later, Lloyd Webber showed Nunn an unpublished Eliot cat poem sent to him by the poet's widow Valerie, about a woeful demimondaine named Grizabella.

From Time Magazine Archive

There was no interesting toil to relieve their unhappy lot, and no distinction was made of the insane, the law-breaking criminal, and the wretched streetwalker or demimondaine.

From Orphans of the Storm by Henry MacMahon

He turns pro, pilfering privileged homes and allying himself with a series of outcasts: a spoiled priest, anarchists, and demimondaines who find him criminally good-looking.

From Time Magazine Archive