fiancée
or fi·an·cee
a woman engaged to be married.
Origin of fiancée
1usage note For fiancée
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.
Words that may be confused with fiancée
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use fiancée in a sentence
His fiancée, Natasha Folley, says she and the children are happy that Payne is back.
This Man Lost 35 Relatives to Ebola and His Community Wants Him Gone | Wade C.L. Williams | October 30, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTRandy Starks was forced to miss a single exhibition game despite striking his fiancée.
Ultimately, both Rice and his fiancée would be charged with assault.
NFL running back Ray Rice was caught on video dragging his unconscious fiancée out of an elevator.
I live in a quiet, old blue-collar area of Dublin with my fiancée.
Farther down the gravel-walk strolls a young Frenchman and his fiancée—the mother of his betrothed inevitably at her side!
The Real Latin Quarter | F. Berkeley SmithIf Roger's American wife was by now wildly jealous of his old fiancée, whose fault was it?
Marriage la mode | Mrs. Humphry WardI fairly barked, and seizing the megaphone again, I set it to my lips and roared, "My fiancée!"
In Search of the Unknown | Robert W. ChambersHe had gone reluctantly, because he saw that his fiancée was worried.
The Highgrader | William MacLeod RaineShe reached the spot just as he was driving out with his fiancée.
Scottish Ghost Stories | Elliott O'Donnell
British Dictionary definitions for fiancée
/ (fɪˈɒnseɪ) /
a woman who is engaged to be married
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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